When the Lost Become Found
by Leigh Adam
Summary: Bruce's parents have returned, not dead like everyone had thought, but that's the least of Bruce's troubles. With everything from sniper attacks on Gotham's most wanted to odd events in Arkham Asylum, things are not peaceful in Gotham. Batman attempts to save the city, just as Bruce attempts to navigate his new relationship with Selina and raise his adopted son, Dick Grayson.
1. Chapter 1

Hello from the author.

I'm new to the batman universe so while some stuff may be in canon, other stuff is specifically not and some stuff is just stuff I wasn't aware of. So if you're super hardcore about canon (except in pairings which will be the same, ex Batman/Catwoman, Harley/The Joker) this isn't for you.

Also, I'm a college student double majoring. Updates may not be the most frequent things in the world. I'm also not Majoring in English or creative writing so forgive a few grammar mistakes here and there please? I will happily fix them.

Without farther ado.

* * *

 **20 years ago**

 **Washington DC, FBI headquarters.**

 **Alfred**

There was no such thing as a normal workday working with the Wayne family. Even after being with Master Thomas in the military, then being his butler at home, there had never been a dull moment. Master Bruce was a handful no matter where he went, Martha Wayne always caught up in some charity or issue she was supporting, and Thomas running around being a doctor and a businessman together.

But unfortunately, today was a fair deviation from the average days, and not in a good way.

Master Wayne had been at school when the news broke. Master Thomas and Mrs Martha had been on their way to have a picnic in celebration of their anniversary, when their car broke down on the outskirts of town. Everything had gone downhill from there and had not stopped rolling down.

Following that, a video had been sent to FBI headquarters, with both the Waynes on it, along with a ransom demand to the tune of 15 million and the threat that any funny business would result in an orphaned Bruce Wayne.

That had been 12 hours ago.

10 hours ago a time and place for the money to be dropped, all unmarked bills, in small denominations, had been announced in a similar manner. This time with Master Thomas looking significantly more bloody. The Government had instantly complied, seeing how Mr Wayne was not only an important businessman, but was also a significant campaign contributor to more than a few people in DC.

Alfred had not wanted Master Bruce to see that go down.

The boy had been picked up from his private school by agents and Alfred himself and whisked here, into this building with dozens of armed men, a top notch security system and the promises from the head of the FBI himself that no harm would come to Master Bruce. That still didn't mean the young man, who was only 9, had to be in the room where all the video feed and information was coming in.

Alfred, with his extensive background, knew this was no place for a child. Despite the boy's quiet matureness, he was still a child, and had no place being here. The man in charge of the room, Agent David Reed, insisted he not be moved for some reason, claiming if the kidnappers wanted to speak to him he must be instantly available on the phone.

Alfred knew in the back of his mind it was because they were still not sure if he was involved yet, though why it was taking them so long to figure that out he didn't know. Bruce had been quiet albeit a bit fidgety, having finished his homework and begun reading a book, and would have been fine in any other room or even one that blocked his vantage point to the giant screen. But Special Agent Stick-up-his-ass refused to see that.

The room was quiet, several agents had already tried interviewing Bruce, and despite the fact he told them all he knew, he hadn't been able to help them solve anything or even provide a direction to go in. Sure the Waynes had enemies, anyone would when your net worth was that large, but they were not involved in criminal activities, verything was above board, and they were not rich snobs who looked down on poor people. Looking into their past would be futile, Alfred knew how to read between the lines, these man had no information on either Mr or Mrs Wayne and where no closer to solving anything.

All anyone could do was wait.

It didn't take long.

A separate tape had just arrived, this one sent to a news station instead, with instructions that it was to be given to the FBI following its finding. Though it had taken less than thirty minutes to get from said station to the room, that was still precious time that had been lost. Every minute mattered.

"Agent, can I please take Master Bruce to another room?" Alfred inquired, already knowing the answer would be the same as before.

"No. I want him here so if he recognizes anything he can tell us instantly."

Alfred knew it was a battle he wasn't going to win, and silently went over to sit by the boy. No one gave any thought to how it was affecting him, and it drove Alfred mad. All any of these people cared about was using the high profile Wayne case as a feather in their cap for their next promotion or when entering politics. He'd seen the success rates they had, and while high, Alfred's practical English sensibilities told him they were far too arrogant. Some agents were acting like this was already over, and that it would be fine.

There had been similar attacks targeting American elite for the past few months, and every single one of them was returned alive. Even with that fact, Alfred could not help being uneasy. He almost wished he was in England and could become involved in the investigation himself, just to make sure it was done right. Even though the money was being monitored it was far from secure, and would be of no help getting any information on the perpetrators. It was always some low level man sent to go get it who thought he was making just another drug run. After the bag changed hands 5 times, it had become impossible to track where it went.

These people were essentially ghosts, and were far from newbies. Alfred did not have a good feeling about it.

"Will they be okay?" young Bruce asked, quieter than usual. "Agent Reed said they would."

All Alfred could do was say "I hope so" wishing it could be better news. Bruce had already had his far share of problems growing up. Despite being very bright and excelling in academics and sports, emotionally he had obstacles. Bruce was already an introverted child, and very lonely. The nightmares that had kept him afraid of his own shadow didn't help him trust people either. That loneliness fed into social anxiety, which snowballed into avoiding all social interactions, save a few. His only friend his own age was a boy named Tommy, who Alfred privately thought to be less of a friend and more someone who used Bruce to brag about how smart he was.

The screen flickered to life, and both Waynes, tied to a chair and looking significantly more disheveled and hurt than they had last time, appeared on the screen. Alfred took in a sharp breath, something Bruce picked up on and looked at him, nervousness growing on the boys on features. Alfred would have started mentally cursing himself for making him more nervous except a voice on the screen started speaking.

"Washington, Waynes, the whole wide world. This video will prove that the rich are nothing, and just as human as the rest of us. They played the game well though, and paid the biggest ransom so far.

"To bad it isn't quite enough for me. I'm tired of the current experiment and want to conduct a new one. So while I thank both of the Waynes for providing funding to my next experiment, it also requires a few test subjects. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like these two fit the bill.

"What does capitalism, the favorite theory of the elite, say happens when someone can no longer work? When they stop serving the machine of the economy and stop producing? They become a drain on the system, and drains are something I just can't have."

Alfred, not liking where this was going, ordered the boy next to him to shut his eyes, which to Alfred's relief he instantly obeyed.

He needn't have bothered, seeing as the film started to point to the floor after being put down. He'd almost thought it was over until 2 gunshots, a shotgun by the sound of it, went off. Both were following by a noise that Alfred knew happened when the bullets made contact with flesh. If that hadn't been bad enough the camera, still tossed carelessly on the ground, still managed to pick up the crimson liquid in the dark that confirmed everyone's fears.

Then the video stopped.

If Alfred had thought the room was quiet before, it was nothing compared to now. The only sounds he could make out were a slight heaving, which he discovered when turning to his side.

Bruce had his eyes shut tight still, though that didn't stop the tears from running down his face. He'd watched enough movies with his father to know what that noise was. He was biting his lip enough to draw blood, trying to hold in the sobbing Tommy had told him only little kids did. It was all Alfred could do to draw him in close and hug the poor little boy he had known since he was born. there was nothing else he could do to make this better.

His little boy now, Alfred recalled, remembering Thomas solemnly telling him that he had ensured that he was to take care of Bruce until he had grown up should anything happen to him. It wasn't that Bruce didn't have relatives, he did in fact on his mother and father's side. But none of them would look out for Bruce the way Thomas knew Alfred would, and none of them would see Bruce's money as Bruce's instead of their own.

Comforting had never been one of Alfred's strong suits, he wasn't the type of soldier who came in to reassure people that they were saved and that goodness was coming, he was the soldier that paved the way for those men with blood. That was not to say he did not try, stroking the boys hair and just hanging onto him.

It didn't feel real and it didn't feel fair. Alfred understood taking out anger on the rich, but the Waynes were not the rich to take it out on. They were involved with many kinds of philanthropy, focused on giving people good wages, good healthcare and creating jobs and making peoples' live better. Of all the rich to strike at in anger, the Waynes should have been the bottom of the list, yet they were at the top.

It took Alfred a moment to realize some agent was talking to him, something about contacting family to come get Bruce.

"I am in charge of Master Bruce, and always have been in the event something happened. Master Thomas and Mrs Martha were very clear about that, and had outlined multiple times he was not to be put in anyone else's care but my own. I can provide you the numbers of the attorney who oversaw their will."

Will. Attorneys. It had started out such a normal Wednesday morning, yet here they were, in a government building full of snobby bureaucrats whose ego had been forcibly taken down a peg and a young boy who had just lost his entire world as he knew it.

It took the useless bureaucrats several calls to confirm with the attorney that that was indeed the case, proceed to make notifications to other family members, and arrange security for Bruce and Alfred for their hotel stay, and then outfitting the manor should anyone try to come for the remaining Wayne.

Alfred was not surprised, though he was disappointed, when they finally escaped that damn building at 2 in the morning they were mobbed by reporters and news crews outside. Vultures. Alfred kept his hands on his young charge's shoulders, shoulders slumped with grief and exhaustion, and made their way to the car waiting for them along with their security.

Lights kept going off in his face, rendering him momentarily blind in the dark, which unsettled him. Voices kept demanding answers to questions like "Does the FBI have any leads?" "Are the Waynes really dead?" "What happens to their money?" none of which Alfred felt like answering. All that mattered right now was making sure a 9-year-old boy was okay.

His only job at the moment was keeping master Bruce out of their grasp and away from the news media circus. It felt like an age to get to the car, when really it was only a minute, would have been faster if the FBI had used a more efficient way to get them out of the building.

The car inside was dark, cold and uncomfortable. The ride was long, twisted and silent. It took Alfred a while to realize Bruce had finally succumbed to exhaustion, leaning heavy on Alfred. He did not ever look peaceful sleeping, yet now he did not look like he was resting well at all. His face was still damp with tears, a photo of which earned someone a Pulitzer prize, and he was still tense. Alfred pulled off his jacket and laid it over him anyway, and later carried him into the hotel, being careful not to wake him.

Master Bruce would have enough problems when he woke up, being tired did not need to be one of them.

* * *

 **20 years later/Today**

 **Gotham City, Docks, Warehouse 17C**

 **Commissioner Jim Gordon**

Tonight had not been the biggest bust in Gotham PD history but it ranked up in the top 10. Drugs, guns, and trafficked people oh my. Every single crime on the books had probably been committed by this organization at some point, even if the DA could only get their crime boss leader, Vito Corleone, on tax evasion.

His people would be here well into the morning hours, cataloging all the weapons found, the money, the drugs and the people who had by luck of the draw avoided slavery, be it sweatshop or prostitution. Some of the would be reunited with families, other would be put back out there, using what limited resources the city of Gotham could provide them to start their life over and get off the streets and away from the life.

"Hey Commish?" a voice less than 2 feet from him yelled. That was Harvey Bullock for you, if he wasn't talking while chomping on a donut or something else that would give him type 2 diabetes, he was yelling like he'd never learned the concept of an inside voice. Despite these flaws, he was a good detective, using the bribes people offered him that turned out to be useless to getting out of charges, to buy stuff for the office, mainly food. Sometimes he lost his temper and beat a few people up, but that was a flaw Gordon had come to accept would always be there, even if he didn't like it.

"Yes Bullock?"

Bullock leaned in, and started to whisper. "I have Martha and Thomas Wayne."

Jim couldn't say he wasn't shocked. It was a popular conspiracy theory that they had been alive after all this time, even though the shots had seemed pretty clear what happened, despite the fact no body and no evidence had been recovered. He'd been going through the Academy at a time, and everyone latched onto the case as what not to do in a hostage situation. The FBI had gotten careless, and it had cost one of Gotham's own dearly.

But it wasn't every day someone showed up out of the blue after being kidnapped and apparently shot to death. There would need to be inquires, dental record checks, DNA checks, and he knew Bruce Wayne would insist on interrogating them himself. The last time someone had impersonated a Wayne it hadn't gone very well.

It was either an almost fairy-tale happy ending for an orphan to get his parents back after all this time, or a really cruel joke that fate was playing on the billionaire. For the sake of Wayne, he hoped it was the former.

"I need a smoke." He muttered and walked off, almost forgetting to give Bullock instructions. "Keep it quiet. Do not under any circumstances call the media. Alert the Wayne estate and the hospital so they can begin records checks and making sure they are alright."

This was a right mess. The case had gone cold almost as quickly as it had started, and he knew there was very little chance the Waynes knew anything, their captor had been through enough to not leave any evidence, he (or she) had to have been careful after all this time. That didn't stop the questions from bubbling up, why were they released now, what game was the man on the video playing, were they even the Waynes?

He'd managed to get not even 5 feet from the building, smoke already in hand when a deep voice behind started speaking, making him almost jump out of his skin. After all this time he never got used to it. The shadow sneaking, the deep voice, the sudden disappearance. Many people thought Jim Gordon's threat of 'nailing his feet to the ground' was a joke. It wasn't.

"It's the Waynes, or someone who says they are them. After all this time, what are the odds they randomly show up here?"

There was an substantially longer pause before the response. "Very small."

Jim Gordon knew the Batman was close with the head of Wayne enterprises, there was only one man in town who hated crime enough to fund someone like Batman, even though the billionaire denied it at every opportunity. He had used to think they were the same person until he had seen them in the same room together. There had gone that theory.

"Someone is playing a game with us Batman, I don't like it."

"I don't like it either." And with that he was gone. Jim had no proof he was gone, having never seen him in the first place, but had been working with the Batman long enough to know.

He pulled a drag off his cigarette, and let it out with sigh. He'd need to call Barbara and tell her he wasn't going to be home by the time she went off to school. Then he'd need to call the Mayor's office. He'd need to make a press conference to give the city a morale boost, and send a clear message to other crooks in Gotham that they were next.

His day wasn't going to end any time soon, and despite having worked 8 hours already, it looked like he was just getting started.

* * *

Exciting? Dumb? Terrible? Let me know?


	2. Chapter 2

I hope I'm not setting too high of expectations too soon. I have a bit of a slow week, and by slow I mean only one exam. Such is life, plus it will make up for next week, when I have a lot more.

Anyways, this one will be a bit longer. As always, like, review, hate it, whatever.

* * *

 **5 AM**

 **Wayne Manor, Gotham City outskirts**

 **Alfred**

The ringing of the phone at this hour was unusual, yet in his line of work had come to be expected. Master Bruce had called him plenty of times, from odd locations, giving an odd instruction that Alfred followed without a question. That's what butlers to super heroes did after all. Besides patching them up after gunshot wounds, cat scratches, blowtorches, jack in the boxes, rope burns, laughing gas, fear toxins and many other seemingly normal devices that had managed to be turned into weapons.

Only a few numbers could come through this line. Master Wayne was someone who valued his privacy, and therefore was well known to not accept any call after the hour of 9 PM. No exceptions, the line went directly to voicemail and didn't even ring, and would not be looked at until 7AM the next day. Only a few numbers made the exception, emergency services, a variety of prepaid cellphones that were scattered about the city in various hidey-holes, Dick Grayson's personal line, the Mayor's office and Lucius Fox.

It had better be damned important if it was ringing this late.

"Wayne estate, Alfred Pennyworth speaking." Always calm and collected, even though it was a time most people would be sound asleep. If only they knew what Alfred and his employers did with their nights.

He knew it could not be Master Bruce, he had just messaged Alfred he was heading in a few minutes ago and was coming back in one piece, so unless he managed to get himself into an accident, while not unlikely considering who it was, did not seem like the case. It had taken a while for Bruce to agree to send him messages about his status and when he was returning, usually making Dick do it as Robin on nights Bruce took Dick out with him. Eventually, Master Bruce saw sense to Alfred's idea, and agreed with it, even making a new way to keep records on his computer.

"This is Detective Bullock from Gotham PD" the voice on the other line practically shouted, it also sounded like he was talking and chewing on something. Americans really did not have manners. There was no faster way to get Alfred to dislike you than to chew with your mouth open.

"Can I help you detective?"

The voice on the other end suddenly got quiet. "The Waynes, or people who say they are the Waynes are at Gotham Mercy right now. The preliminary records check out its them, but we won't know for sure until DNA is run and some security questions have been answered."

Thomas and Martha. After all this time. Alfred felt like he just got suckerpunched in the stomach. They were back, here alive, or someone after their money was. While they were too late to stop the damage that had been wrought on their son, their only son, Alfred couldn't help but hope this meant good news for Bruce and the family. Maybe Dick would get a more normal family than just Bruce and Alfred. Maybe things would go back to the way they had been before. Maybe it would ease some of his Master's suffering.

Before it all fell apart.

"Hey Alf, you there?" Bullock asked, having completely lost his need to be quiet.

"I'm here. Tell the police and hospital staff Master Bruce and Dick and I are on their way and we will meet you at the hospital."

Alfred clicked the receiver before the un-civilized policeman could do it for him. For all the policeman's accomplishments he could really be a buffoon. The smacking alone made Alfred's skin crawl.

He went and grabbed another line instead, one that went to only one communicator only. "Batman, are you there? The Gotham Police department requests our presence at Mercy hospital. It's, it's, your parents sir, or what appears to be your parents. Dental records and other such body tests are confirmed but a DNA test along with a personal interview is still required in order for them to be believed."

Alfred didn't know why he was babbling, as unprofessional as it was. Maybe it was the silence on the other end, that despite his insistences to Master Dick, did unnerve him sometimes. Part of it he was sure was shock at the news.

Alfred guessed Bruce already knew, and was staying out for a while longer in order to deal with things in his own way. Maybe some muggers got the living daylights beat out of them, or some mob goons were hung upside down from a lamppost. He'd been alone tonight, Master Dick having an exam the next morning and Master Bruce being insistent his schooling come first. Not that he would be going to school tomorrow anyways it seemed.

"I'm five minutes away. I will be upstairs in ten minutes. Make sure Dick is ready." The gumbly voice on the other end replied, being careful not to give anything away, even to his own butler and trusted friend. Bruce had been funny like that, even as a child. Alfred thought it was the nightmares that plagued the small boy, which had fostered a sense of distrust and paranoia from the start. His father and Mother had been the opposite, loud social people, the people who everyone naturally gravitated to because they were so fascinating to watch. People gravitated to Bruce, the billionaire, philanthropist, man who owned a top fortune company, employer of the largest amount of people in America behind the government and single bachelor, but it wasn't the same way.

While Thomas and Martha had done nothing but dominate the spotlight, their son had, in more ways than one, only been truly comfortable in the shadows.

"Master Dick, wake up please." Alfred politely requested, knocking at the door, pausing for a full thirty seconds, then proceeding to open the door to the pitch black room, the only way Dick claimed he could sleep. Alfred flicked the light on and off until it got the sleeping teenager's attention.

It took a few moments, but once Dick was awake, he was awake. No need for coffee or anything. He could fall asleep almost anywhere and could wake up just as quickly, ready to fight, take an exam, climb chandeliers that had been imported from a Château in France that had been built in the 19th century. Things that were normal in the Wayne household for young men to do.

"Is something wrong?" Dick asked, worried and only slightly relaxing when Alfred shook his head. Alfred had never woken Dick up in the middle of the night before, not even when Bruce had a bad injury.

"It's, Master Bruce's parents sir, your grandparents, they were found this morning and are currently at Gotham Mercy Hospital. As soon as both yourself and Master Bruce are ready, we will be going to see them and to ensure they are who they say they are."

It sounded so simple, but that was what Alfred did after all. Keep things calm, orderly and no-nonsense. When the storm got ugly, it was his job to keep things moving, keep things running and make sure things did not fall into chaos. A task ultimately he attempted in theory, but sometimes didn't manage to get down in practice. Not that he would let anyone know that.

Dick, perhaps sensing this, didn't ask anymore questions, instead getting out of bed to grab some nice clothes and brush his teeth. Alfred could hear the water running, and satisfied he went downstairs to check in on Bruce.

He didn't have to look long, running into the expressionless Wayne, covered head to toe in sweat, looking incredibly disheveled and with a bruise forming on his right shoulder. Alfred sighed, he never could make things easy for himself could he? Always had to do things the hard way.

"I know, I know," Bruce muttered, sensing the butler's disapproval about his appearance. "I'm going to clean up a bit and wear a long shirt. I'll be quick."

It wasn't his timeliness that worried Alfred, it was rather what was going on inside his head. Alfred knew how dangerous that place could be, familiar with the man's bouts of depression and frustrating refusal to let anyone inside to help him process how he felt. After his parents had been kidnapped and subsequently vanished, Bruce had only retreated farther inside himself. Teachers kept calling Alfred to explain there was nothing wrong with his test scores, performances and he was an angel in class; it was just he seemed so isolated, so alone, and unable to make friends. At one point a family member after Bruce's money had tried to raise questions about Alfred's guardianship abilities, an avenue that ultimately failed them, though it took three psychiatrists, all independent of each other, to come to the conclusion there was nothing else going on besides grief. Grief that had never seemed to go away.

Bruce's head was a dark and lonely place, and the man didn't seem to know how to make it anything else. Not for lack of trying. His opening up to Dick, even as a young man who was only 21 years old, had been fascinating for Alfred to watch, as Bruce tried to give someone a stability that Alfred had given him, and not always being good at it. Alfred had also watched him attempt to navigate his relationship with Selina Kyle, a lovely young woman who had a passion for saving large cats. Of course, Alfred also knew about her night-time activities as well, something that only complicated Bruce farther and seemed to draw him in closer. Nothing could ever be easy for him. Despite all the advantages he had been given in terms of materials in life, Bruce had had to work harder than most to make any kind of headway with family or friends.

Alfred, having already gotten dressed in his usual black suit and grabbed some snacks to eat from the kitchen, as well as tea for Bruce and Dick. Dick joined him in the foyer first, dressed in a nice shirt, dark jeans and had combed his hair, essentially having made every effort to look very presentable he could have made in the past fifteen minutes. Bruce followed him shortly after, long sleeve button up, dark pants, and clean.

Alfred was the only one to speak as he ushered them out the door, Dick seeming to know now was not a good time for questions, though Alfred knew he had them, that boy was always full to the brim with them, and Bruce being as quieter than normal.

He attempted to break up the silent ride by trying to engage Dick in conversation. "I want you to know, Master Dick, that both the Waynes will like you very much."

"What are they like?" Dick queried, looking much more relaxed knowing he would be accepted.

"A lot like you." Bruce spoke up for the first time. "Very outgoing, very social, very loving."

The conversation flowed naturally from there, Bruce and Alfred telling Dick stories about the things the Waynes had done when Bruce was a boy. About how his father watched his favorite tv series, the Gray Ghost with him and how his mother had taught him how to garden and which plants were which. Bruce told Dick about the first time in the batcave, and how his dad had taught him to not be afraid of bats anymore. He told him how his mother had always bought him a cookie inside a store next to an animal shelter she took him to volunteer at, even though she was allergic to cats she knew how much they made him happy.

Alfred didn't think Bruce would have ever stopped talking, if he hadn't announced that they were pulling into the parking garage of Gotham Mercy at that moment. The caused some of the quietness to return, and a little bit of fear.

It was a fear they all had, what if they weren't his parents?

* * *

 **5:45 AM**

 **Gotham Mercy Hospital, Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

Bruce liked to act like he wasn't afraid of anything, despite knowing that the Scarecrow's fear toxin indicated otherwise. He'd spent a long time conquering his childhood fears, of which there had been many. Bats, heights, the dark, spiders, cobwebs, caves, loud noises, basically many things that moved and many things that didn't.

Now, he was something that was feared by many instead. He was the nightmare, the shadows, the dark. Those things held no power over Bruce Wayne anymore, instead he wielded them against others who sought to use the darkness, fear, and human suffering as a weapon to hurt. He had truly conquered them.

It was hard enough to admit he was afraid now, even to himself, even if his fears were irrational. What if he was a disappointment to his parents, what if they didn't like Dick, even though he knew they would love him just as much as he did, what if they found out he was Batman and got hurt, what if it wasn't really them inside, what if his parents came back different?

So many what-ifs, and not enough time to brood over them all.

The cool spring air had warmed a bit since he was last in it, something both Bruce Wayne and the Batman heavily favored. Working in the snow was a great risk due to the sheer amount of ice and snow that collected on buildings he tried to use his grappling hooks on. The summer was worse because with the heat brought out ill tempers, and the happy summer fun was too much to swallow for some of Gotham's less than friendly rogues. Spring and Fall were just right.

They ran into Detective Harvey Bullock outside. Bruce Wayne automatically went over everything he knew about the man. Recently put on health probation at the Gotham PD due to concerning high blood glucose and cholesterol levels, had always gotten the bullseye on his marksmanship tests, lived in a small dingy flat in the middle of town that lacked working lightbulbs and was dirty enough to give Alfred a heart attack. His personal history was bit more convoluted, the fourth out of five children, all born to a nasty dad who had a habit of alcohol, and later cocaine, fueling his rage against Bullock, Bullock's mother and siblings. It was why he changed his name from David to Bullock, his mother's maiden name. He'd always been overshadowed by his siblings as a child, two went to Ivies, one to be a surgeon the other an engineer. One was a successful actress, who worked in Broadway and the other had been a sports star who actually invested his money well and didn't blow it on hookers, booze and fast cars.

That wasn't to say Bullock was without his own accomplishments. Even if Bullock was loud, ill-tempered, occasionally beat up on some incoming Arkham inmates and hated his beloved Commissioner's partnership with the Batman, he was a damn fine cop. He was loyal to a fault, always did some good police work and seemed unable to be corrupted like so many other officers on the force. Hell, he even regularly got called in to deal with Ivy since her charms didn't seem to have an impact on the man.

"Good to see ya" The gruff man bellowed. Not that he needed to, the lobby was empty except for the four of them, with two policemen standing guard outside. "The media hasn't been notified, and it currently appears to be them according to records. Congratulations."

The man didn't mean to come off as callous, even though Bruce could sense Alfred's bristling. Something something manners was probably going on in his butler, and old friend's head. He'd almost turn his mouth up into a small smile if Bruce Wayne did that kind of thing.

"Thank you for that Detective. Please understand this means a great deal to us and how grateful I am for your work tonight." Ever the smooth talker. Bruce's only obstacle with people, had to be his own anxiety and doubt about how he came off. He could be a master manipulator, though he didn't enjoy it, it felt too much like Tommy. As the Batman, he was able to command a situation, making things happen almost out of air and being able to go toe to toe with the best in verbal sparring. Speeches and media events, he was a natural. In a social setting like an event gala, he was doing well for the night if he got more than 20 words out to people who weren't his date or close friends.

"It's the 5th floor. Hang a left and trust me, ya can't miss it." Bullock shrugged, and went off to yell at some rookie who had the audacity to sit down outside.

Dick was quiet for once, soaking the situation in while Alfred seemed to be as calm as always. Nothing ever really rattled Alfred except bad manners.

The elevator wait was short this time of night, the lights in the area dimmed down as part of an energy saving initiative. Despite his best efforts, there was a knot growing in his stomach, the what-ifs from earlier coming back in full force. This was what he always wanted, this is why he became Batman, why was he so damn nervous?

Nerves that didn't calm when the soothing voice of the elevator announced "Level 5".

* * *

 **5:50 AM**

 **Gotham Mercy Hospital, Gotham City**

 **Jim Gordon**

The Waynes had been fascinated by the computer the nurse let them use when they weren't running an exhaustive amount of tests. They had been very good-spirited about the tests, joking throughout and Thomas Wayne even talked to the doctors about some cases he himself had worked back when he was practicing.

It was a natural defense mechanism, and Gordon knew someone would have to suggest they seek victims counseling, if all the tests came back positive which they seemed to do. But until then, they were doing their very best to be cheerful and it fit with all Gordon had been told about the Waynes. Bright high energy people who managed to be the center of a room no matter where they went.

They looked much different now, having aged a huge amount, no doubt a strain of captivity. Hair that had had no white hairs was now covered in them and they both seemed so tired.

Thomas was too excited to rest, especially after finding out Bruce and Alfred were on their way.

Martha Wayne of course had been excited at the mention of Dick, though both had briefly become solemn again when Jim explained the boy's circumstances behind Bruce's adoption of him. That had all vanished moments later when a nurse decided to show Thomas Wayne how to use google, and within minutes they were looking up their son.

"He kept up with all my charities and added a few more!" Martha gushed excitedly while Thomas seemed to want to talk the ear off of any nurse who would listen about his son's business sense, the company had grown a significant amount in positive ways. Martha had been amused at all the stories detailing the man's bachelor life style and how handsome he had grown up to be, while Thomas became excited Bruce had gone to his university alumnus.

"What is he really like?" Martha demanded, and it took Jim a few moments to realize her question was directed at him.

"Quiet." Jim responded, then felt the need to add on. "He's a good speaker, just doesn't speak very much, keeps to a tight-knit group, he's always been very good to the city and he's never been in trouble with anyone."

That seemed to satisfy Martha Wayne, until her attention jumped to the elevator ding. Bruce Wayne, a tall bulky man who Gordon had once suspected of being the Batman stepped out, along with Dick Grayson, who for the first time Jim had ever seen him quiet, and Alfred, the ever present man doing his best to blend in the background.

The couple wasted no time rushing him, pulling him in like, well like they hadn't seen him in years. The man dwarfed his parents, standing four full inches taller than his already tall father. Both of them strained to reach all the way around his torso, clinging to him like he may disappear on them at any moment in time. Martha had started to cry, Bruce looked like he may start and Thomas had squeezed his eyes shut, savoring his son.

Bruce, for his part, a man of few emotions, looked relieved, and happy. His shoulders released a mass amount of tension, and he happily returned their embrace. Both Thomas and Martha Wayne were talking to him at the same time, both expressing joy at seeing him, exclamations about how tall he was, how strong he was, how much they had missed him and wanted to hear everything.

After a while Bruce managed to get out of their embrace and began to make introductions to Dick Grayson, who held out his hand to shake for them but received a similar bear hug instead. He looked sheepish at the police commissioner, but hugged them back anyways. It was clear he was a part of the family and was accepted by them, even if he didn't know them yet.

Alfred however hung back. Jim, out of curiosity one day, had looked up the Butler and instead of finding a peaceful quiet man he had expected, found a retired special forces officer from her majesty's armed forces. Everything else beyond how long he had served, was classified and inaccessible to a mere police commissioner. Which only made Gordon respect the man more, not just for how he took care of the Waynes, but what level of solider he must have been to have a record sealed like that.

"What." Alfred cut in "was the occasion in which you told me you were going to have a son?"

"I had decided to play with my Mercedes and managed to blow the transmission. I was trying to put it together, even though you insisted I hold the light. I told you we'd have someone else soon to hold the light and you dropped a tool in the engine you were so surprised. We had to call the dealership to send a guy out to fish it out." Thomas answered, suddenly very serious.

Alfred did not budge. "What happened in the war?"

"Something dark, bloody and a thing only her majesty would approve." Thomas answered confidently.

Seemingly satisfied, Alfred turned his attention to Martha Wayne. "What is the hiding place?"

"In the top jar, above all the others, a bright yellow cookie jar that never holds cookies." She answered.

"Who are the people not allowed past the door?"

"The men with a first name starting with C, a last name starting with F, and anyone who likes Owls." She answered, sure of herself and not even hesitating.

It was at that moment, Alfred broke into a smile, something Jim had never seen him do. "Welcome back Master Wayne, Mrs. Wayne."

"Oh come here Alfie." Mr. Wayne commanded and pulled the old Englishman into a hug, something causing Jim to smile as the man was clearly not used to being embraced. IT looked very unnatural, even when the Butler relaxed and allowed himself to be hugged.

Jim couldn't stop smiling. A family was reunited, this was why he did the job. Why after all the destruction of the Joker, Penguin, Bane, various Mob organizations, Poison Ivy, and the occasional terrorists he stayed on the job. It was for moments like this.

"I think," Gordon began, sorry to interrupt them "once we have a confirmed DNA match you are free to go. The Gotham Police Department is set to hold a press conference this afternoon at 15:00, but you are free to make a statement announcing your return earlier. Over the next few days we will be asking a lot of questions of course, but I hope you understand why."

Gordon smiled again, the family's happiness rubbing off on him. "Welcome back to Gotham."


	3. Chapter 3

**6:57 AM**

 **Wayne Manor, Gotham City Outskirts**

 **Alfred**

The ride back had been loud, boisterous and yet awkward only in the way trying to find safe subjects with someone you had not seen in a long time can be. Mrs. Martha stuck to asking about her charities, which Bruce told her all about, while Mr. Thomas wanted to know how Wayne enterprises was doing, which Bruce also told him all about. Both wanted to know about how a long list of people were doing, and somehow in the middle they got on the subject of Dick in the circus.

The day was a Friday, so technically a work day, but he would be calling in to both Gotham Preparatory Academy for Dick and Wayne Enterprises for Bruce. Both were out for the day due to family reasons. He didn't feel the need to farther explain, how the Waynes wanted to tell the world was not up to Alfred. If they wanted a press release or something however, he would happily organize it or get in touch with any news or media person they asked. That was what good butlers did after all.

Bruce had sneaked into the study almost immediately, and while both his parents did not notice, Alfred did. Probably off to do logs while Dick wanted to show both the Waynes how easy it was to hang from the large chandelier in the foyer. Thomas and Martha's reaction to that stunt had been far different from Alfred's. Alfred had insisted he get down and threatened to not give him dessert for a few days. Thomas and Martha were busy exclaiming over how handy Alfred must find him when it came time to change the bulbs out.

Master Thomas and Mistress Martha being back in the house would be something he would have to get used to.

Alfred had enjoyed the quiet that Bruce had kept the place, only a few functions every year, and Dick having friends over when he'd harassed Bruce into giving him the night off from Robin detail. Now, knowing both how often Thomas and Martha entertained in the past, the house would soon have a large volume of people moving in and out of it for various events. What fun that would be for the Batman.

While both Waynes and Dick were chattering away, Alfred could not help but wonder about all the changes. They were the same Thomas and Martha he always knew, and yet, for two people who had just come out a twenty year vanishing period, they were remarkably cheerful. Alfred knew it was a mask, instead of the moodiness, refusal to eat and quietness their son displayed, the way both Mr. and Mrs. Wayne dealt with things, was to talk and pretend everything was exactly like they had left it. Which they were doing quite a good job at.

The manor had not changed very much, to the visible eye anyways. There were a large amount of changes done, but those changes were only privy to a small amount of people. Bruce would have to tell them about his nightlife eventually, that and the fact the manor sat on top of one of the most secure places in the world, with a high tech lab, numerous fast vehicles and a collection of odds and ends Batman had collected from his adversaries over the years.

Dick, having seemingly hit his limit, made his excuses and went off to bed. No sooner had he rounded the top of the stairs when both Waynes turned on Alfred, in a manner that assured Alfred he was about the be interrogated. Joy.

"What is he really like?" Thomas demanded while his wife asked "Is there a lady in his life?"

Alfred couldn't help but smile. Bruce would owe him for this one. Oh yes he would owe him big time. Not that Alfred kept track or anything like that.

"Why don't we have a seat in the library so I can answer all of your questions?" Alfred asked kindly, and without waiting for any response, ushered them through the house towards the large maple doors. As long as they weren't in the study, though Alfred knew Bruce would probably use the pantry entrance anyways.

Alfred pushed open the doors, and to his own amusement, saw Miss. Kyle, in a cage. Life as Batman's butler was certainly never boring.

She and Master Bruce had entered a game of sorts, he, as Batman, gave her places to break in to test the security system, and in turn, left something for her to find as payment. Alfred would never understand the game, but it amused both Bruce and Dick to no end, and he was assured by Bruce Catwoman enjoyed playing along. Besides, anything to get her to stop stealing from museums, other people who did not want their security tested, and banks, was a win.

While Thomas and Martha did not know what to make of this, Alfred pulled out his phone, the one that had a connect to the batcave, and informed Master Bruce his security tester was still here. He would know what that meant.

"Hello Catwoman. This is Mr Thomas Wayne and Mrs. Martha Wayne." Falling back into his role as a butler, he tried to make the situation as normal seeming as possible. Alfred couldn't help but letting his lips curl up a little. For all he had heard about Catwoman, the sight of her finally in a cage, in the library no less, was rather amusing.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Wayne." He voice was soft, yet had an element of danger to it. Alfred could see why Bruce had fallen for her, not that Bruce knew that. "It's a pleasure. Sorry it couldn't be under better circumstances. We'll have to have a do-over at some point."

It was Thomas who got his tongue back from the sight of the cat first "Why are you in cage, in my library?"

Catwoman rolled her eyes as though it was obvious. "I was testing manor security like I'm supposed to. Unfortunately, if you don't put something of a similar weight in this safe and just empty it, this cage with a fingerprint lock comes down and traps you. Clever man."

Bruce picked that moment to show up, some kind of superpower of his, along with a set of keys.

"I take it this means Wayne Enterprises Security Branch wins for once?" He asked sweetly, never having beat her at her own game before. Not as Bruce Wayne anyways. Oh the extra context Alfred had made this so much funnier.

"Maybe this round" It was as close to a concession anyone was going to get.

Smirking he made a show of picking out the right key, putting it in the lock, then disabling the thumbprint scanner. No sooner had the door clicked open when she rushed out, vanishing in a period of a few seconds. Bruce kept smirking as he reset the safe components and was no doubt thinking of another surprise he could throw at her. Their game never would end since neither would ever accept defeat.

"Who was she?" his mother demanded, eager to get back to the subject of women in her son's life.

"She tests security. She's the best in the world, not that you should tell her that or she'll ask for more money. She's helped completely overhaul not just manor security but Wayne Enterprises as well." Bruce seemed very relaxed with the subject, as though he was talking about the weather. But then again, Alfred reasoned, it was because it fell into his element.

"What did she take?" Thomas Wayne queried.

"A small cat figurine, made of gold with emerald eyes. She'll give it back eventually and I'll just have her test another aspect of security."

Both Waynes were, for the first time this morning, quiet. Bruce had said this like this was totally normal. And in Bruce's world, Alfred figured, it was. Women in tight leather bodysuits breaking into your house and stealing things out of your safe was probably one of the more tamer aspects of Batman's life. When you considered the Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Ras al Ghul, Clayface, TwoFace, the Penguin and the various other villains that showed up every now and then, a female catburgler who literally dressed up like a cat was relatively normal.

What a world to live in.

"Now if you don't need anything else," Bruce continued as though nothing had happened, "I'm going to go finish more of my work. If you will excuse me."

Bruce didn't wait for his parents to answer, and pulled a vanishing act. It had been a talent of his pre-Batman, whenever he had done something wrong as a boy and Alfred had gone looking for him or there was a social function his presence was required at, Alfred would never be able to find him or would turn around and the boy had vanished. It had been unnerving until Alfred found out he could be lured out with promises of warm chocolate chip cookies. That seemed like so long ago.

"Now that that's taken care of" Alfred continued, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. Catwoman making a mess of something in the manor was a normal part of Alfred's routine too after all, "what questions do you have?"

"Can we go back to the woman in our library?" Martha spoke up, clearly unnerved by the event still. "Who is she, and how did my son find her?"

"That woman goes by Catwoman. She's rumored to be one of the best thieves in the world, of course no one would have tied her to anything had she not gotten caught by Batman in the act and only stolen cat related things."

"Who is Batman?" Thomas wondered, and Alfred could not blame him. They were used to mob threats, not clowns, flying rodents and birds. Poor things, they were in for a shock when they saw what Gotham had turned into.

"It's probably better that I show you." Alfred mused, and walked over to the computer in the room. He knew just the video to pull up too, it had filmed been when some journalists had been taken hostage by the Joker while interviewing the Mayor. The fight had been recorded and streamed live to all of Gotham, and it was still by far the best quality video anyone had of the Batman. Bruce hated the video, but could not be bothered to take it down, claiming it was cathartic for others to watch the Joker get pummeled.

"Batman is a vigilante. He helps the police track down leads, beat up thugs, and all the crazies in Gotham, mob or otherwise. He's taken down a large part of the mob, but others, like the fellow I'm going to show you, have taken their place. He does his best to keep the city safe."

Alfred hoped the explanation was adequate. How did anyone explain the Batman unless they read all the reports, watched the news or even seen him in action?

After skipping the ad, something about a new superhero movie, the video began playing, starting with a scared looking reporter, holding her microphone and doing whatever the Joker told her to do. There was the usual ransom demands, threats of making Gotham smile and some truly awful and tasteless jokes. The three watched silently as Batman appeared, seemingly out of thin air, took the Joker and his thugs down, made sure Harley Quinn did not set off the Smile-X canisters, and saved the camera crew and Mayor, all in a span of 6 minutes and 37 seconds. As the reporter turned back around to thank him she discovered, like Jim Gordon did on a daily basis, the Dark Knight had vanished.

"So anyways, Batman convinced her over a long period of time to break into places but do it when people paid her to. The Batman contacted Wayne Enterprises, Lucius Fox and Bruce jumped on board. She comes around when Bruce has some new security thing him and the engineers want to test. No one really knows what her real name is" Lie. It was Selina Kyle, who was the go-to person Bruce called when he needed a date to a function and to spend time with someone who wasn't work or Dick, Barbara and Alfred. He had fallen quite hard for her, in both her personas, but she had fallen hard for Batman, not Bruce. Being a hero was quite complicated. As usual, Alfred mused, communication would solve everything but anyone who wore one of those masks would rather escape a Joker and Poison Ivy deathtrap before they talked about their feelings.

"Oh. I see." Thomas muttered, which meant he was far from satisfied with his answers and would be grilling Bruce later of his unusual taste in employees. Not to mention doing some heavy reading on the computer.

"So anyways, back to our son," Martha began, ever anxious to return to the subject "Are there any women in his life?"

"Well," Alfred began, wanting to be discrete but also wanting to satisfy their curiosity, besides, how did one explain they met on a rooftop, in costume, after a museum robbery that one of them had committed, "You'll have to ask him."

"A-ha!" Martha Wayne beamed, "That means yes! What's her name?"

Alfred was going to be late making breakfast this morning.

* * *

 **7:20 AM**

 **Wayne Manor, outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

He was avoiding thinking about it. That wasn't to say he wasn't happy his parents were back, in fact he was ecstatic despite his usual composure, but it brought so many questions and so many more complications to his life. Not to mention he had to get in contact with Selina and get through her sour mood enough to convince her she needed to go to the upcoming charity ball with him. He'd also have to pretend to not know why she was in bad mood, and would be unable to tease her about getting caught.

Bruce had always been comfortable around Selina, and Catwoman for that matter. It was actually kind of nice having a fellow masked person not trying to lower him a tank of piranhas or something equally as deadly for a change. Bruce had first met Selina at a charity event for a wild game reserve that focused specifically on big cats. Unlike most women he'd happily pretend to be a dumb as a doornail around, he was actually interested in getting to know her. He'd picked up very quickly she was playing dumb bimbo debutante just as much as he played wealthy idiot with a sad backstory, and had been intrigued ever since.

This curiosity only grew when he figured out she was Catwoman, an angry Penguin slipping her name out in a meeting Batman'd been listening in on. He'd later confirmed that by following her home, which he continued to insist to Dick was not because he was stalking Selina, but because it was surveillance on Catwoman. Barbara had sided with Dick, as had Alfred, and they continued to make fun of him for it.

He'd never quite live that down. Nor would he let Selina live down how she met his parents. Not that they, or her, had to know. It would be one of those things that would occasionally make the corners of his mouth turn up when he was having a bad day.

Not that he really had a lot of work to do in the cave, most of his night had been expected, he just needed to sit and digest everything that had occurred within the last 12 hours in the safety of the cave. Patrol had been perfectly normal, at risk of sounding clichéd it was a perfectly normal day with perfectly normal weather, perfectly normal criminal activity and perfectly normal everything else. He had gone to take a section of the city while Barbara covered the other, Dick had had an exam so he had missed. No rogues, no mob bosses, nothing out of the usual.

Then his parents just showed up, and someone somewhere had granted the wish he'd made on his 10th birthday 19 years late.

It couldn't be a coincidence they just showed up now after he had gotten well established in his routine with Robin and Batgirl, his mind told him the odds of that happening and even if he had been a betting man, he wouldn't have taken those odds. But what else could it be? Someone had stolen his parents when he was 9, knowing he would become Batman, cause him to become Batman, and then give his parents back to mess with his mind? No that was far too improbable and required seeing the future.

None of the files from the bust last night had provided any answers, what ones were in the system anyways. Lots of former missing persons, run-aways, a couple people who didn't exist according to the social security office. But no one in the same age group or any similar victimology, other than being kidnapped of course. It looked more and more like it wasn't a coincidence, but that just didn't make sense. The foresight it required wasn't possible.

He of course knew he would have to find out what his parents had to say, that would shed some light on the whole thing and give him a direction to start working in. Of course, he would have to wait for them to talk to the police, and then the FBI would want to get involved to try and save face on the investigation from so long ago. Once the Feds got involved, it was going to be hard to do some investigating on his own, as they would look at anyone taking an interest in the case, even the Batman. No, this would have to be done very carefully, and he could not afford any mistakes.

Bruce sighed, closing the files and getting ready to go back upstairs, this time using the entrance that let him into the pantry that Dick had used to frighten Alfred on occasion. Something Dick had not grown out of.

What was wrong with him? His parents were back, he shouldn't be so worried over everything and just be happy he had his family again. And yet, it felt like all he did was worry. How was he supposed to tell his parents about Batman? Was that even fair to Dick and Barbara since they would ultimately get exposed too? How would anyone react to knowing he was Batman? When would the next rogue break out of Arkham and what would they do to cause mayhem this time?

So many questions, not enough hours to think of all the answers. He needed sleep, even if he was the terror of the night. Dawn had come and gone for him.

He'd get some sleep for a few hours and then find out what his parents wanted to do to announce their homecoming. And then go see Selina. Then go see if there were more files, then check in on that thing in Wayne Enterprises Lucius had wanted him to look at, some kind of computer microchip. Then go be Batman and confront Catwoman and other street thugs. Then wake up and do it all again.

His entire life revolved around the work he did, not just for himself but others. It made him feel whole and complete and like he had finally found his purpose.

 **12:00**

 **The garden outside Wayne Manor**

 **Bruce**

There were so many lights. Cameras in every direction, tons of photographers hoping to get the picture that would make their career, reporters falling over themselves to ask question, print and television media personalities alike. The crowd couldn't stop buzzing there were so many people and Bruce couldn't help but wonder if there was a media outlet in a 100 mile radius that had not been invited.

For once it was not his job to be in the spotlight. Unlike so many other press conferences he had done before for Wayne Enterprises, and Wayne Enterprises only, he was happy to let gossip rags keep guessing about his personal life, he didn't even have to talk other than to express his happiness his parents were back.

They had always loved the limelight much more than him, his mother enjoying making sure they were photographed as a family whenever there was media at an event. He guessed the paper and some other magazines probably had more pictures of him as a child with his parents then he did. He had all but disappeared from the press's eye after his parent's kidnapping and alleged murder. The last pictures of him were Alfred protecting him on the way to the car.

For his part Alfred was keeping busy. This had been impromptu so Alfred had called a local business and practically forced them to provide food for this event, and was running around making sure things were in an order only Alfred could explain. That would never change. Dick was doing a good job standing and looking professional, and whenever someone asked him about the Wayne's return he happily called them his grandparents.

His father, who seemed much shorter now then he had in Bruce's memory, stood up and asked for silence. Bit by bit, with some general shushing, camera flashes and orders to "be quiet he's about to start" the garden got quiet.

His mother was right next to his father, holding his hand and projecting every bit of the iron couple they did in their portrait in the study. Despite others' issues, both in their families and friend groups, they had managed to stay together and seemed stronger than ever for it. What every kid had wanted their parents to be, Bruce had had. A loving mother who answered every single why and comforted him even when he denied needing it, and a caring Father who was happy to make time for his son and teach him about the world.

They were where his own inner strength had come from. It was them who had gotten him through the cruel and unusual training methods imposed on him by some of his teachers, and had only strengthened his resolve when things got hard. They may have been out of his life for most of it, but there was no denying both of them and Alfred had significantly shaped it.

"I'd first like to state" Thomas Wayne's booming voice began "That rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. And that goes for my lovely wife as well."

The reporters tittered, eating the entire thing up. Then again, they always had.

"I can't explain where both Martha and myself have been due to the cause being under investigation, however I would like to thank the Gotham City Police Department, detective Harvey Bullock especially, the police commissioner Jim Gordon, the Mayor, and for this fellow called the Batman.

"Very Early this morning, the Gotham Police led a raid on a large criminal enterprise, one both my wife and I were held captive in. Thanks to their efforts, we would not have been able to return to our family and all of its additions." Dick smiled just in time for the cameras to pan over at him and the flashes to go off to capture his smile.

"Now if anyone has any questions…"

He need not have said anymore. He said the magic words and the press was off to the races, passing go and ignoring their two hundred dollars. The older Wayne calmly pointed at Vicky Vale, of course sitting front and center. Batman had owed her for some intelligence she had given him, and he had promised to return the favor whenever he could. This was a part of that, not that she needed to know that.

"Vicky Vale here, Gotham Gazette, what role did the Batman have in your recovery?"

"We were told he supplied the police department with critical leads on where the enterprise was, and important logistical information."

More like he had handed Jim Gordon an address, along with the number of thugs, when to surprise them, and what kind of weaponry they were going up against. He'd have done it himself if the job had not required so much manpower and had so many people involved.

"Lois Lane here, Daily Planet, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne what exactly were you doing in that warehouse?"

Ahh Lois. Never one to beat around the bush, always straight to the point. He'd liked that about her, and a fellow reporter named Clark Kent who bore a striking resemblance to Superman except for his non-prescription glasses had liked it a lot more. He would need to check in on him soon, Bruce hadn't talked to him in a while. Even if they weren't close friends, they were still friends after all and had the same passion for stopping crime.

"Busy being tied up and treated like human cargo after being dragged out of a cell in some unknown location. Next question please." Ah Lois had struck a nerve. As usual. That was what made her such a good reporter. He'd make sure to send her something later along with a personal quote.

Some other reporter asked about the return to family life and Bruce inwardly sighed. This was going to be a long afternoon and his face already hurt from smiling so much.

* * *

 **13:30**

 **Ivy Luxury Condos, Penthouse Suit**

 **Selina**

The little figurine stood on her coffee table looking at her innocently. Inwardly she knew it was not the gold statue's fault, though that did not stop her urges to throw it against a wall or smash it.

That had been the most humiliating thing to happen to her in a long long time. The worst part was she couldn't even be angry with Bruce over it, since he didn't know she was Catwoman. But still, being locked up in a cage like so many other cats in the world, was humiliating. She'd be the laughing stock of the underworld if anyone found out, and at the hands of straight and narrow Bruce Wayne no less.

Wayne had called earlier that morning and asked her to come with him to a charity gala tomorrow evening along with his parents. Who were apparently not dead and had picked that exact moment to come back into Gotham City. She let him slide for asking her over phone this time, it wasn't every day the dead came back to life.

Oh the world was not fair. Selina knew it was her own fault for being carless, she should have suspected something, but a cage coming down from the ceiling and trapping her? A Freaking cage? Where did he even put that thing? It sounded more like something the Joker would do then a normal security system, even if it was in a billionaire's manor.

"Isis, what are we going to do?" She asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. Isis, having sensed her bad mood, instead of deciding to be obtuse and bother her, had gone off to nap instead. Considering Selina had not heard any movement it was unlikely Isis had done more than open her eyes at her name, if she even bothered to do that.

Great, so now she had to carry things of equal weight of what she wanted to steal around with her, or be extra careful and check both the floor, ceiling and walls around her for a possible cage. It came with the territory, though if she had even hinted at what her life had become to her estranged sister or even her long gone mother, both would admonish her for it. It was time to do some updating to the googles, and make it so the lens could peer even deeper to walls and other places a cage might hide.

Next thing she knew Bruce would start lining stuff in lead. Then she would have a real challenge.

In the meantime, she decided to do some simple housework, laundry and figure out what the little cat was worth. Maybe she'd plot a way to set off an alarm or two to have an excuse to yell at Batman for Wayne's stunt. Or maybe she wouldn't go out tonight and would just instead watch a movie, eat popcorn and pick out a dress for tomorrow night. What lively Friday night plans she had.

Deciding to turn the TV on to have something playing in the background, she scrolled past a RomCom old enough for her mother's age, a few soaps, some cartoon, sports, sports, college sports, and infomercial and then the news. That appeared to be a live press conference from Gotham Manor, with Bruce and Dick sitting next to a man and woman, who had to be in their late forties.

The scrolling news byte below the live feed proclaimed the darlings of Gotham City, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, were alive and well and had apparently been rescued from a human trafficking ring last night by Gotham PD, who had help from the Batman. Of course.

She'd meet them both once before, besides her humiliating time this morning. She had been dragged along to some function with her mother, a guest of Carmine Falcone's, and brought to an event where they both had been at. It was at that moment Selina had decided she was going to be rich one day no matter what she had to do to get there, with all the beautiful dresses making the women look like princesses, and all the shiny things that would not tarnish. She'd been playing by herself in a corner when she had accidently bumped into Mrs. Wayne, causing her mother to look horrified. The woman had brushed it off, insisting her son did the same and talked with Selina for a good while after that. After finding out she had liked cats, the woman talked about a charity she helped work with and her experiences meeting all kinds of cats, from common household cats to ocelots and tigers.

Young Selina had been utterly fascinated, and she remembered feeling sad when she had been told something bad happened to Mrs. Wayne. Of course, that time of her life had been a rough period for herself as well, and she had never dwelled on it.

No wonder Bruce had sounded so stressed this morning, he hated cameras like the plague. Which was odd considering how good he was in front of them, making reporters laugh and guiding them to the narrative he wanted to put out there. He could be a media sensation, America's sweetheart, if he wanted to. Not that he wasn't already popular in some of the more, less credible magazines. No one had held eligible bachelor for quite as long as he did it seemed.

Poor thing already looked the way he did when too many women tried to swarm him at events, each wanting to try batting for Bruce's attention. He claimed to not notice, but Selina had a hard time believing that. After all, someone friends with the Batman had to have more social grace than that right?

Resolving to do her cleaning tomorrow Selina Kyle grabbed her laptop and began searching on the Wayne story, while watching the conference in front of her. Cleaning would have to wait, and she was most definitely going out tonight.

* * *

Please keep in mind I have never written any of these characters before, this is just my own impressions of them. So if you think something is off or that I'm doing something right, please let me know. Writing is a passion.


	4. Chapter 4

Comment critique etc. Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, the thing that catwoman got stuck in was inspired by the first Nancy Drew game, where you get a game-over sequence if you do it wrong.

Anyways…. This is a Bruce and Selina chapter. I'm still trying to figure out their interactions with one another, so if anyone has any suggestion, shoot me a message or review. It would be much appreciated.

* * *

 **18:00**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

He watched as the last of the cars drove off the drive-way, even though he knew there were a few cars sitting just outside the property line, waiting for any movement or anyone leaving the house. Vultures. They would make his coming and going as Batman very difficult, and he may have to use one of the temporary batcaves in the city, which he hated doing. It made it harder for him to come and go, cut down on his access to materials considerably and was just a pain. He'd have to make some excuse to be out and about in the city at night, and then make some other excuse in the morning when he came home. Life would just be easier if people left him alone.

The gate had not even shut yet all the way and he could already feel his shoulders slump over with relief. He knew that media was important and he knew they were instrumental in his parent's case, he just wished they hadn't asked so many prying questions. He wasn't an insect and had no desire to be in the lime-light.

After the reporters had run out of things to ask the older Waynes, they focused on the younger ones. The questions had gone from amusing to vastly inappropriate and he'd had to stop himself from storming out on more than a few occasions.

He had a whole long laundry list of achievements, both as Bruce Wayne and as Batman and all anyone wanted to do was find out if there was a chance someone would ever catch his eye, and if there would ever be any drama for them to report on that end. Bruce's public life was boring, and boring didn't sell.

"You never did like cameras did you?" his mother asked. He had noticed her walk in a few moments ago, but Bruce had staid still, figuring if she wanted to talk she would.

"No. No I didn't" he admitted, and turned to face her. She for the most part still looked the same, though her being so much shorter than him was going to take getting used to. She had changed into a gray sweater and pants, and he was momentarily relieved he had kept all of their old clothing. He didn't care if it was living in the past, and like some of his other decisions with unintended consequences, it had all turned out for the best.

"Do you remember that time when we went to go see the opening of that play and you hide behind me and refused to let yourself be photographed? You must have been 5."

"No," he honestly answered. There had been a lot of things he had blocked out after they left, and some things that would randomly come back to him. Like a secretary at Wayne Enterprises wearing a perfume his mother had liked to wear, or a doctor in scrubs who had the back of a head like his own fathers. Those things were crystal clear, things like hiding from cameras, not so much.

"It doesn't surprise me though. They've said some nasty things about me over the years."

She nodded softly "I saw. Dick taught us how to work the newer computers you have now. The subject of you comes up quite a bit. Cosmo keeps bringing you up."

His expression soured, the last thing any son wanted was for their mother to believe the things those magazines, if you could even call them that, wrote about him. "None of its true."

She smiled at him again. "I know. That's why when I wanted to check up on you your father and I badgered Alfred. He's such a good butler, he said we would have to ask you about the lady you're bringing to the charity gala event that happens tomorrow night. That your father and I want to attend as well. And be a dear and let Dick know he is coming too. No exceptions."

The more things changed. The more things stayed the same. As a boy she had always insisted he go talk to the other children and make friends, even when all he wanted was to go play by himself.

Bruce, however was saved from explaining Selina a little longer by the phone ringing and his mother grabbing for it, never wanting to let Alfred answer it. It had been a source of amusement to her to answer the phone and see how people reacted. For some reason people never believed the lady of the house would answer her own phone, and the results often got quite ugly when people thought she was some know-nothing girl who just cleaned.

The voice on the other end talked first, for a seemingly long time before his mother answered "Of course agent. Thomas and I will be there to answer any questions you may need. In fact, you may even come to the manor if you like, that way it gets done faster."

Fantastic. Federal agents who hated his guts in his house, looking at stuff, scrutinizing, and just generally being in the way. Being Batman had hard enough on its own with all the social events he had to attend to keep up his public persona, now he would have people all over his house.

It wasn't that he doubted the security systems he had put in place, especially around the cave. It also wasn't that he was concerned someone would manage to find their way in or stumble across an entrance, he had gotten the clock repaired and a new locking mechanism in it for that exact reason. It wasn't even that he was concerned that they would see the Batmobile coming and going. It was the fact he would be watched, and his movements would be accounted for. It would be even harder to be Batman, just like it was already hard to explain how he somehow managed to vanish from multiple events right as a rogue showed up, and reappear right afterwards. That had been solved by asking Dick to step in a few times now that he was tall enough, and while it had fooled Gordon, it wouldn't do the trick here.

While his mother went on with the agent on the phone, Bruce slipped away. He knew the house like he knew the lines on his hand, and knew where to step to make sure the floor didn't creak, no one heard him and he managed to make it up the stairs just fine. He wasn't quite sure why he was sneaking around his own home like he was trying to avoid getting roped into a conversation, but he was anyway.

Bruce had told Dick he would not sneak up on him and the house, so like any respectful guardian, he knocked on his door and waited for Dick to answer it. It did not take very long.

It looked like Dick had been doing homework, based on the amount of papers all of his desk. Alfred occasionally would attempt to organize them, Dick would complain he couldn't find anything, Alfred would get offended and then Dick would apologize. The cycle repeated about every month or so. Based on the amount of clutter, it looked like it was about time for another organizing session again.

Dick looked just as exhausted as he did, and Bruce felt bad. He'd done his very best to shield him from cameras. When he had first taken in Dick, reporters had stood outside his school grounds, trying to get a blurry photo of him so the world could see the orphan Bruce had taken in. Photos of his performances were dredged up and anything and everything that could be found on Dick was made public. That had quickly stopped after some legal threats were made, but every now and then a picture would surface of Dick doing normal teenager things.

"Mother wanted me to inform you that you are attending the charity gala tomorrow night. And you can bring a date if you want to."

"Is that all?" Dick started grinning "You sound like it's the end of the world. Does this mean we aren't doing patrol?"

"Keep your voice down." Bruce hissed, before glancing around to make sure they were truly alone. His father had gone to go through all of the things of theirs Bruce had kept, while his mother was presumably still downstairs. However, it still didn't hurt to establish the practice now. Especially once the place started crawling with Feds, socialites and everyone in between, secrecy would be of utmost importance.

"We, we'll have to discuss what this means for our night-time activities later. But bring your suit just in case. You never know when it will come in handy"

"Now who is talking about work in the open?" Dick teased, trying to lighten the mood. He stopped quickly when he learned it wasn't going to get a reaction, and hastily added "Can I take Barbara?"

"As long as her father is okay with it." Which was true enough. Bruce had known how close Dick and Barbara had gotten, and only got closer when Barbara chose to take up the mantle of Batgirl. Gordon had privately told Bruce Wayne there better not be any funny business, because if there was one person the Gotham PD was more protective over then James Gordon, it was his daughter. She'd been coming to the police station and spending time there longer than some officers had even served.

While Dick turned around to go call Barbara, Bruce made his get-away, needing to find Alfred and go get some supplies to put throughout the house. If anyone thought about snooping, he needed to know and add in some more in-home surveillance equipment. Plus he needed to find out what exactly Alfred had said to his mother.

* * *

 **23:15**

 **The roof of the Gotham Museum of Art, Gotham City**

 **Selina**

She and the Bat had developed a routine. There was a certain painting in the museum, coincidentally of a bat, that the museum security team believed had a faulty sensor that went off sometimes at random. It didn't, but the only people that knew that were her and a dark knight who was running farther behind schedule than normal. She wasn't going to bother with a giant searchlight for him, because then she would only feed into his pride.

Nothing big had been going down tonight, unless Harvey had done something dumb in the past 6 hours since she had last seen him at the Iceberg. Harvey was smarter than the average rogue, he planned and plotted then struck instead of just loading up on some chemical or biological weapon and going to town on a bank or a girl scout troop. Doing something rash and unplanned was more up Clayface, or when she got mad, Ivy's alley.

Just when she was about to call it quits, he showed up. He thought he could sneak up on her, and sometimes he could, but she had noticed lately he dragged his feet just a bit more, or she had gotten better at picking up on his arrival. Either way, she liked it.

"I was worried you were going to stand me up." She pouted, turning around to the dark figure. She could only see below his jawline, but her imagination about what the rest of him looked like did the work for her. Especially with what was probably under that armor he insisted on. She liked to imagine he had blue eyes, instead of the white lens that covered his face up. He would have dark or dirty blond hair, she hadn't decided yet, and the body could probably put any number of fitness models to shame.

As usual she got no response, so she took that as permission to launch into a tirade. "You knew Wayne had a cage for me, didn't you. You knew and you've probably been laughing all day that he had to come unlock me!"

That got her a smile. "I did. I didn't expect it to catch you."

Oh he was so infuriating, especially when he was right. Here he was on the roof grinning at her like the cat who ate the canary, and she did not even have a single biting response. She should have seen the cage coming, why else did she have x-ray googles. She had underestimated Wayne, something she knew to not do again. For all his knowledge about books and business, it looked like her friend was hiding more in his head than she thought. Maybe she didn't know him as well as she had believed.

"Speaking of Wayne, I believe you have something." He kept smiling at her and all she wanted to do was wipe that smirk of his face. Bastard. She had been so close, she earned it. Even if he wanted to argue she hadn't technically made a clean get-away, she'd made it out of the house with it. Someone had just seen her.

"I do." She replied coolly, before her body tensed and she took off the side of the building. "But you have to catch me if you want it!" she called over her shoulder as she vanished into the dark, hearing a grappling hook deploy behind her, indicating Batman was not quite that far behind. She didn't turn back to see where he was, she could feel him following, chasing, and that was what she wanted.

She enjoyed this little game of theirs, probably more than he did. She had tried for what felt like years trying to get a rise out of him, the only time succeeding when she said something about Robin and Batgirl, and it didn't feel quite right to include them in the game of theirs. No man would ever be able to match him in how he made her feel.

She managed to make it all the way down to downtown, landing on the city hall building before he got close enough to catch her. She was brought down to the roof with an ungraceful and very unwanted oof. He got to his feet first, and though he offered her his hand to help her up, ever the gentlemen, she insisted on getting up on her own.

"I wasn't done gloating yet. Unless you just like getting pinned down" He bantered back, rather shamelessly. She could feel a flush starting to creep up and she almost took off again before he wisely dropped the subject. "How good are you at getting files?"

"Fantastic. Why?"

"I need you to steal something for me. I'd go get it myself but I can't. It's important."

Oh, pigs took off in flight somewhere, the Batman needed a favor from the world's thief. She would have him in her pocket now after this, Selina was sure of it. "What is it that little old me can get to but you can't?" She asked sweetly, wanting to play this game out. It was her turn to pull some strings, to make him want and to be second in command. She put her hand on his chest, playing with the edge of the cowl, while she looked up at him grinning.

"The file the FBI has on the Wayne disappearance." He answered, no hitch in his voice no reaction to her. Ugh Damn him, he was one of the only men she had not been able to get that reaction out of. She had in the past used it to get a great many things, and despite thinking he would know better, Cobblepot fell hard for it like the first time, every time. This was the only man she couldn't get wrapped easily around her finger. that that she minded the mental challenge.

"Consider them yours by tomorrow night. But first we need to discuss the method of payment. I may not steal unless hired too anymore, but I'm no hero of the night."

That damn smirk was back again. Damn him. "I thought about that" he answered evenly, "and came to a conclusion. There's a necklace coming up for auction soon, tanzanite and diamonds. You get me the files without arousing suspicion it's connect to you or me in Gotham, you get the necklace. Deal?"

"Aww getting me jewelry already. How thoughtful." She exclaimed and it was her turn to grin. There was the blush, very small and faint but it was there. "Why do you want the file so bad?" she asked, trying to get information out of him. She was acting like it was no big deal, playing with his cowl and being sweet, but she really wanted to know. Despite how far they had come, he still didn't trust her, and if he did trust her now, she wanted to know what she could do to keep it that way.

"I can't get it via computer since it hasn't been uploaded to federal databases. The copies of the case on paper are the only ones that exist. I need to see it to start an investigation of my own. The Feds are coming to the area soon, and they may bungle up the only leads that may exist."

She studied him a long time. Very rarely did he take cases that involved personal people, unless it was organized crime related. She knew Wayne had probably asked him to look into it, and was probably the person behind the necklace gift anyways, who else could just throw money like that around for a few files. Maybe the golden boy didn't play by all the rules after all, especially when it came to family. The thought intrigued her, she would have to take some time getting to know her friend better than she had thought.v

"I'll meet you in the usual spot around say 4 or so. Be on time please." She asked sweetly, not knowing why she bothered. He had already melted back into the shadows, back to go do whatever it was he did when they weren't playing the game. She also doubted he would be on time, despite his other skills, being on time did not seem to be one of them.

* * *

 **18:30**

 **The Ivy Luxury Condos, Penthouse**

 **Selina**

She had barely finished getting all the Isis hair off her dress, why did cat hair stick to anything and everything, when the knock at the door came. She glanced over at her wall clock, and sure enough, the second hand had just passed the 12. Perfectly on time, down to the last little second, as usual it seemed. She'd never met a man so on-time before in her life, military members included.

"Coming" she called, shooing Isis away from her dress again and shoving her lipstick in her small clutch. She had worn this dress before, she never understood wearing something once and then never wearing it again. It was one of her favorites, a dark blue that was modest enough her mother would have been fine letting her wear it to a church service but form fitting enough that she would get attention.

She opened the door and one of her oldest friends made a customary comment about how nice she looked tonight. She rolled her eyes as usual when locking the door, and made small talk as they went to the elevator to go down. It seemed like a normal night, but only because they were both pretending it was.

The first time she had meet Bruce Wayne was at a charity event, and despite all the stories about the apparently socially inept billionaire she had heard, she found he was incredibly smart. He had seen through her dumb act after all. Their status as friends had been solidified when he made sure to attend the event she was holding for fundraising for endangered tigers, which brought many other people. It had made her the star of that charities fundraising efforts and caused more than a few other organizations to take notice. That had been a while ago, and after befriending Bruce, mostly any social circle was open to her. Not that she had used him or anything, he was a nice guy and cared just as much about charities as she did, their friendship had blossomed from there. They may have come from vastly different walks of life, but they were similar.

Ever the gentlemen, he held the door for her and allowed her to get comfortable. He had brought a nice blue car she wasn't sure of the name of. She was not a car person, and remembered the teasing she had gotten for it. She'd been a public transit kind of girl her whole life, so what? Cars meant very little to her. They seemed like a dumb thing to spend money on anyways.

"So, my mom is going to interrogate you and my dad is going to halfheartedly try and stop her. Dick is also bringing Barbara, so you have a bit of a buffer. So if they ever get too over-bearing turn it on Dick. "

He tried to be casual about it, and maybe that was for the best. She didn't know what to say around them, or how to act, especially since the only conversation she had recently had with them was as her alter-ego. She was pleased to hear Dick was bringing Barbara, he'd tried to ask her for help about it while not really asking for help, and Selina had been happy to oblige. Just because Bruce was useless in the field of romance didn't mean his adopted son had to be. It sounded like he had taken her advice and started pursuing her more. That was good.

"I haven't done a meet the parents date in so long." She stated wistfully, hoping to make Bruce blush. Mission accomplished. "I wouldn't know what to talk about."

"My mother is really into charity work, more humanitarian than cat but she likes animals too. My Father is a doctor" Bruce explained, saying things Selina already knew, and things he knew she knew. He was nervous, and even though there were no physical signs, Bruce was one of the few people whose body language she had trouble reading, he was nervous. Even for all his posturing and easy-going tone, he was nervous.

And at that moment so was she. Alfred had accepted her presence without question, and had told her more than once it was nice Bruce had a lady friend who would make him smile. She knew what Alfred was implying of course, but things were, complicated. They would be complicated for a while until she got over Batman, not likely considering his move last night. Bruce was a sweet guy, and she cared for him very much, but it wasn't in the same way as Batman.

"Do you think they'll like me?" she asked, almost without meaning to. Just because Bruce had accepted her didn't mean his parents would, after all some people completely ignored her at events just because she had come up from nothing. She'd made money in plenty of other ways, and all through her own work, but she still did not like the judgement pr rumors of how she had done it. She'd made sure to swipe their family jewels for herself, as a payback.

"I do." He answered confidently, something Selina wished she could emulate. For all his worrying and nervousness, he sure did a good job of acting like he was in complete control of a situation. "They've been badgering me, Dick and Alfred about you since they found out you were my date."

"Oh really now?" she raised her eyebrow, not that Bruce noticed since he was driving. "And what did you say?"

"You were my very good friend. Alfred said they would need to ask me, and I'm not sure what Dick told them. You'd have to ask him."

The little troublemaker. He'd been trying to play match-maker for a very long time, his efforts had ramped up in the past year or so for some reason, and she was never sure what he said was true or not. Dick was a bit of a prankster, in a good humored way, and she never knew if he was telling her Bruce had a crush on her because he did or he felt like making Bruce feel awkward, another hobby of his. Even though Bruce had formally adopted him, their relationship felt more like a brotherly one sometimes. Either way, talking about things would bring things up, and even if she had been remotely ready to have that conversation with him and tell him she had a torch for someone who might not even hold a torch for anyone, he wasn't.

"Selina?" Bruce asked her, jostling her back into reality. "Where did you go?"

An inside joke of theirs, something she normally asked him. Bruce would sometimes get deep in thought, working out puzzles that only made sense to him or worked on things only he seemed to know the answer to. Sometimes he would get lost inside his head in the middle of a conversation and she would have to guide him back to the present. It was rare that she would do the same thing.

"Oh nowhere." She lied and it was his turn to look at her and raise an eyebrow.

Some things were just better left unexplained. For both of them.

"I have a curfew tonight you know." She attempted, trying to change the subject. Bruce let her drop it, he had never pushed her for anything. "I have an early start tomorrow, so I'll need to be back by 2." That would give her enough time to change out of her things, grab the file she had practically walked in and taken, and meet up with Batman. "I'm going to the humane society to do some stuff with cats." That part was true, although she wasn't actually arriving until 10 AM. She felt the need to justify where she was going, even though she didn't have to.

"I think we can manage 2 if my parents don't succeed in talking your ears off and cause you to flee earlier." He was good natured about it, "I'd like to get back in early myself. Creature of habit and all that."

Selina laughed, and relaxed a bit more. Things were looking good right now. The Batman owed her, her friend's parents would like her, and her old friend Harvey Dent had promised Catwoman personally he'd be good tonight.

Things were looking good right now. Just like they always did before they went terribly wrong. It was the universe's way, nothing ever went right for Catwoman or Selina Kyle.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey again, Just stopping by to say if you like where this is going or hate it, drop a review. I won't know if it sucks unless you say so. Anyways…

* * *

 **20:00**

 **St Mary's Domestic Violence Shelter fundraiser, Powers Hotel Ballroom, Gotham City**

 **Dick**

To say getting to this event was awkward would be stopping short of how it had really felt by a large margin. It was downright unnerving and he felt like he was nine again, suddenly thrust in a brand new world with new people around him with new expectations that he didn't know and that were hurriedly explained along the way.

First there had been the pictures. Martha Wayne had insisted Alfred take a lot to document the occasion. Then, instead of sneaking through the back like he did with Bruce, they went right up through the front door and past as many cameras as possible. He'd been photographed more times in the past few days then he had ever been photographed. Dick regretted complaining about the times Bruce made him go to things, at least he had avoided the limelight and simply just made an appearance. This was a whole new level of hell, and Dick normally liked having his photo taken. Apparently Martha Wayne had always been like this, and it would be something else to get used to. As though he didn't have enough on his plate.

Barbara for her part had been fine about the whole thing. She'd gone to enough things with her Dad she was used to this kind of stuff, even though he tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible. She seemed more comfortable than he did actually, Bruce's parents had taken a shining to her almost instantly. The ride over she had been grilled on all kinds of things, and while Barbara had laughed along with the jokes and good natured-ribbing, he couldn't help but wonder if this was a bad time to have asked for a first date.

"Hey wonder-boy, I like your suit. It's a good look for you" Barbara teased, having brought her own, though where she had hidden it Dick would never figure out. Being a girl vigilante must be so hard. Dick had recently decided he wanted to change his suit, and had brought the new one with him instead. Instead of the colors nine-year old him had decided he liked, he went with something darker, more sophisticated. Black and blue, just like perps would be after he beat justice into them.

"Thanks, it's Armani" he replied, grinning back at her. Bruce had been hesitant at first, then told him if he wanted a new suit he had to design it all on his own and allow for armor. Bruce had approved his designs, after some rigorous testing he had conducted with Alfred. Though why it needed to be piranha teeth proof Dick wasn't quite sure and he wasn't about to ask for the backstory behind it. But rules were rules, and where the night-life was concerned, they were not to be disobeyed. Ever. Except to save a life. Then you still get yelled at but didn't have to do stuff like clean the cave.

"How is Bruce doing with the endless questions?" Babs asked, and Dick giggling told her all she needed to know.

His mother and father had taken in Selina without question, which was funny to Dick considering how she had actually met them. However, they had seemed to have missed the just friends memo, asking things like "where did you two meet?" "what are your common interests?" "Do you go out together a lot?" Or maybe even had the memo, and just enjoyed making Bruce squirm, something Dick never got tired of seeing. For all his bluster and bravado as the Batman, Bruce would start squirming if you went on about him and Selina for too long. And by squirming, Dick meant mildly uncomfortable and his demeanor shifted. To normal people, he took it in stride. To someone who knew him very well, he was squirming.

Dick had pushed that button more than once over the past year or so, especially once he found out she was Catwoman and that she had started using her powers for good. Well, that wasn't entirely true, while she hadn't gone straight and narrow, her line was straighter then it had used to be. Bruce seemed to be waiting on the right opportunity, or divine intervention, to tell her he was Batman. Or he never would, and they would be locked in their stupid game they thought no one else saw them playing forever.

An arm grabbing him and pulling him to the dancefloor reminded Dick he was not one to judge. Babs had assumed this was because Batman wanted them all close together in case something happened so they could move quickly, and while Dick knew Bruce would agree with that sentiment, it wasn't exactly the only reason he'd asked her tonight. He'd tried to make this seem more like a date than a mission or something, but he wasn't sure if it was translating.

"Someone caught the brooding" Babs teased, as she twisted him around, almost crashing him into some elderly couple who was insisting on dancing some kind of waltz looking thing while the music was clearly not waltz related at all. They tutted at them and muttered about how horrible young people were these days. If only they knew.

"I did not" Dick protested, even though it was a lie, and started laughing with Babs to prove it. He couldn't blow this, their entire time working together would be ruined and every future rooftop stakeout would be awkward as hell if he did blow it.

"Do you want me to grab you a drink? Age-appropriate of course" Dick asked, trying to change gears.

Babs giggled again and nodded, and followed him over.

Bruce had once told bored 10 year old Dick Grayson the best place to people watch was by the food. People thought other people's ears stopped working when they went to grab food, and you could hear all kinds of things when people thought no one was listening. He'd actually managed to pick up a few interesting tidbits at the things, the most famous being a rigged county inspector seat, but still interesting.

Dick and Babs glanced over at Bruce and Selina, and Bruce was going to every single person his parents wanted to talk to and making the re-introduction. Selina tagged along too, happy to go around and in some cases happy to see some former victims. To most people Bruce would just look neutral, but slightly interested. To two people who spent a lot of time with him, every night in fact, they knew he was bored out of his mind. It wasn't that Bruce was stupid in social situations, they just bored him and he preferred to not engage.

Babs leaned over and whispered in his ear "How many people is it going to take before Bruce claims he has to go to the bathroom and goes and finds some robbery as an excuse to be Batman?"

"20 people." Dick replied confidently. "Or 20 couples. 20 more groups of people. That's how long he will last."

"Hmm, I say 30."

"Willing to bet on that?" Dick asked sweetly, knowing she could never resist a dare. "Loser does whatever winner tells them to for 4 hours." He knew exactly what him and Babs would do, what restaurant they would go to, and what event they would do afterwords.

"Deal. Get ready to do some logs wonder-boy." Of course she would make him do logs. She hated them, wondering why they had to write stuff down if their cowls recorded everything. Bruce said something about organization, and told her if she hated logs so much she could be on desk duty and man the computer. She hadn't complained around him since.

"In your dreams Babs."

"Get ready to watch Bruce make my dreams come true." She fired back, and Dick couldn't help but laugh at her wording, and Babs started to laugh too. The same older couple was glaring at them from earlier, probably because they were laughing at all and didn't have their face stuck in some prim form of properness.

They eventually left the table, and went off in search of Bruce and Selina, wanting to see if they could make him break earlier, or in Babs case, encourage him to keep going.

They made half a lap around the room without seeing them. It wasn't exactly a surprise seeing how many people had come to this event, but for two people who prided themselves on being observant and their own detection work, it was a downright nightmare.

"I know a way to get to the other side of the room without all the people. We just go through the hall-way and go in the other side" Dick said after a frustrating few minutes of people not wanting to move or walking painfully slow. What it was about crowds that made people reduce their walking speed Dick would never understand.

"I like your idea" Barbara admitted, and followed him to the door.

Every time there had been any kind of event Bruce attended as Bruce Wayne, he would study the building blueprints before, looking for exit routes, areas of security weakness, and ideal places he could ditch his suit for his other suit. He had taught Dick to do the same, and it was paying off. Even if it he wasn't exactly using his knowledge for the reason Bruce thought.

The lights were unusually low in the hallway, Dick didn't pay it any attention until he heard a thud. Human bodies made a very distinct heavy thud when they hit the ground, and that was exactly what this thud was. Barbara knew it too and without a word Dick pulled them into the closest side area, a tiny alcove with a seating area and a window with very long, floor length curtains. Perfect hiding place.

"Whoops, bad tails. Looks like you lose." A deep voice intoned from the end of the hallway, with a muted bang happening right afterwards, indicating the man or women, whoever they had been, was gone and that Harvey Dent had a gun. Harvey Dent did things with a plan and never alone, and would have all kinds of backup. No way he would make a move on an event this big without a ton of manpower. This was very bad.

They both waited anxiously, ready to strike at any moment, suits be damned, if Harvey got too close. They waited a full five seconds after he rounded the corner in the hall, holding a conversation between his two personalities. His good side was insisting domestic violence shelter fundraisers were a bad place to hit, his bad side didn't care and said the good side had been over-ridden, whatever that meant. Harvey had only recently gotten out of Arkham, the past week in fact, and it was probably just his residual meds doing the talking. Which only made him more dangerous. TwoFace not thinking straight would get more violent, and the last thing that packed room needed was lots of violence.

The second the coast was clear, both went to work, pulling on their gear, masks and grabbing their equipment. Both finished in under 30 seconds, and it didn't bother either of them about the fact they had just changed behind a curtain in a hallway. There had been weirder places. Much weirder places.

The screaming had already started, which meant TwoFace was already active and ready to go. They needed to be back in that ballroom a minute ago.

"You go check for outside goons" Dick ordered, assuming charge in a situation like he had been taught. Besides, he had dealt with TwoFace a lot more than she had. "I'm going after TwoFace."

Batgirl rushed down the hallway, looking to cut off the potential goon's escape routes and take them down, leaving the former District Attorney trapped to be picked off by Dick and the Batman. With luck, it would all go down quick and easy, no more blood spilt.

Nightwing however, went back inside a different way, sneaking in a less used side door made for caters and ended up behind a pillar by the food table. He'd wondered at first why he hadn't seen Bruce racing out the door until he realized it was Bruce, not Batman, that was the star of the show tonight. At least he was according to whatever TwoFace's scheme was.

There was a small stage set up near the opposite side of the room, and at some point in the night, the event organizers were going to use it to thank some of the more generous benefactors, make a speech about how the money would make a difference, and thank everyone for coming. Instead, TwoFace was using it as his own personal soapbox about how much he hated Gothamites and how they deserved to be robbed, and his two unfortunate assistants in that process were none other than Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. Batman and Catwoman.

The Harvey Dent Dick had known and that Bruce had befriended was a calm collected and controlled man. TwoFace would lose his temper at the flip of a coin, literally, and had no qualms about yelling and screaming. Which he was doing right now.

"YOU USELESS, NO GOOD HOITY-TOITY PIECE OF CRAP, YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME, I KNOW WHICH ONES OF YOU ARE DIRTY THERES JUST NO PROOF ON. YEAH COUNCILMAN GREGOR, I'M TALKING TO YOU! YOU THROW YOUR MONEY AROUND LIKE IT EXCUSES ALL THE BAD THINGS YOU'VE EVER DONE, WELL IT DOESN'T!" Harvey pointed his hand-gun, silencer now removed at the ceiling and pulled the trigger a few times to illustrate his point.

Something was off. It wasn't the ranting, or the yelling but Twoface as a whole. He preferred bigger guns, was more eloquent and always had goons guard the hostages, he never did it himself. Dick's brain said trap, but he couldn't find where the catch was.

"SO WHO WANTS TO GO FIRST IN PAYING OFF YOUR DEBT TO SOCIETY? HOW ABOUT YOU PRETTY LADY?" Harvey demanded, turning on Selina and pointing his gun at her face.

"Now Harvey, come on and be reasonable. We can work something out." Bruce said calmly, attempting to both calm the man down and get the gun to stop pointing at Selina. It worked in that TwoFace pointed it at him instead, pulled out a knife from his pocket, and continued his screaming rant about goody-two-shoes and dirty dealers in this town.

Nightwing knew something was wrong, everything about this scene was wrong, TwoFace was supposed to flip the coin first, but Nightwing couldn't hesitate. He had a batarang out, thrown and knocking the gun out of Dent's hand in under 5 seconds. Another 5 seconds got him to the front of the stage, where he was able to demand TwoFace stop before anyone got hurt.

"NEW SUIT BOY-BLUNDER? IT LOOKS GOOD ON YOU!" Twoface continued yelling while waving his gun around in Nightwing's general direction and Nightwing knew deeper and deeper in his gut something was wrong. This had to be a trap, a set-up a something.

"Harvey, we can go back to Arkham and help you get well. You aren't yourself-" Nightwing tried but was cut off by Twoface's incoherent rambling screams about how unfair the world was, the rich had all been corrupt and it was his job to bring him to justice. That was a new MO completely, and before Dick could address him anymore, Twoface lunged forward at Selina, only to get thrown off her moments later by Bruce. It was seconds too late to prevent injury.

Nightwing picked that moment to launch himself at the villain bracing himself for a bullet that never ended up coming, even though a gun had gone off and glass was breaking. When he pulled himself off Dent, there was a bullet hole in the side of his head, and Dick had been covered in the man's blood. The blue wings across his chest were turning purple, and there was red everywhere. He was gone. Even if there was a way to save him, there wasn't enough brain matter that wasn't exploded or cut up by skull fractures to make him think again. One of the windows into the ballroom was shattered, and it looked like the bullet had come from a distance away. A sniper? But who was the sniper aiming for?

"Selina!" A voice next to him exclaimed out and it took a moment for Nightwing to process this was Bruce the victim, not Batman. Selina was on the ground too, the knife that had been at her collarbone now pushed into her stomach. It didn't look deep, thankfully, but it was enough the woman had started to go into shock, or what looked like shock.

Bruce had already begun pulling off his jacket and calling for both his father and anyone else who was a doctor. Nightwing decided it was a good moment to make himself scarce, and fled out through the main door, using his grappling hook to guide over the sea of panicked onlookers.

Nightwing didn't know what, but he knew something big had just gone down. Someone had killed Harvey Dent after he had shown up to a charity gala out of his mind.

Barbara wasn't far behind the door, explaining that there was no back-up to have found, when she took on worried look at his suit and asked who the brain had belonged to. She had relaxed quite a bit when he told her Twoface, but he knew she still had a lot of questions as they raced back to their clothes, already hearing police and medical services sirens wailing. There was no way they would have caught the sniper, and would have to go back later to investigate to see if he left anything. Both Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon needed to go to the hospital with Selina Kyle, investigations would have to wait.

It was the start of something. Something ugly.

* * *

 **02:14**

 **Gotham Mercy Hospital, Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

Back again in as many days. It was not a good sign, or at least he would think it was not a good sign if he believed that kind of thing. Bruce knew enough about the occult and underworld to know it wasn't. Even so, there was a dark sense of foreboding weighing on his shoulders, and he couldn't help but wonder when things had gotten so complicated.

Things couldn't be a coincidence, first his parents, now Harvey going crazy and getting sniped? And Selina, why did TwoFace target her? He knew TwoFace and Catwoman had good relations, no beef with each other, so that perspective didn't make sense. Dent wasn't some thug for hire either, so no one could have paid him off to do it, even if they knew who Selina was. Maybe Harvey Dent had gone crazy. Maybe his parents had been rescued and come back to Gotham through a weird twist of fate.

It was the simple answer but it didn't feel right. He'd been thinking over things the past few hours since they had arrived in the ambulance. Selina had no next of kin available at the moment, so Bruce had elected to stay, sending Dick and Babs home, along with his parents. He knew they were really looking over possible locations for the sniper to see if they left anything behind, and would later stop by the morgue to pick up some preliminary notes. It still felt like a set-up, especially when he considered the possibility Harvey was bait. Who had really been the target? Was it Harvey, or was it supposed to Batman, or even Bruce Wayne?

Or Selina. His mind had known she would be okay, she had to be, she was Catwoman after all. That hadn't stopped him from initially panicking when he saw the red, and hadn't stopped all the thoughts that went through his head. They had been through so many near death experiences together they could almost be considered a mutual hobby. This felt different though, because it was personal. This wasn't against Catwoman and something she stole or Batman for putting someone away. This was against Selina or Bruce or Harvey, and for some reason Bruce could not figure out, that made everything change.

His father had set to work on her instantly, after looking over to confirm that there was no saving Harvey Dent. Dent had gone from having two faces to maybe ¾ of one. They had managed to slow down Selina's bleeding with help of another doctor, and had assisted when the ambulance arrived. She was wheeled into the OR the moment she arrived, and had currently been there ever since.

While he was in this waiting room. Bruce knew he was wasting time, but this was important. Besides, he didn't really want to leave. Despite the Police's assurances there would be guards around her, Bruce knew he could do a better job. He was the Dark Knight. The suit was tucked away into his bag, ready to go at a moment's notice in case someone tried to come back to finish the job here. He would hear Dick and Barbara's reports later.

"Mr Wayne?" A soft voice called out from over by one of the doors that lead back into the hospital area. Finally some news.

"Is she okay?"

The woman smiled "Yes she will be fine. Have a bit of an issue getting started on foods again and will have to do some physical therapy, but she will go back to normal."

What a relief. He didn't know what it would do to Selina for her to lose being Catwoman, but he imagined it would be the same way he would feel if he had to give up being Batman. It would feel like part of your soul got ripped away from you, like a whole huge part of your life had just died and you would never get it back.

"Can I see her?" Was the next question and the woman nodded, gesturing for him to come back. He followed her lead and went down the long hallway, painted a soft soothing blue to help relax people, or so he had been told. The hospital, despite the numerous renovations to it over the years, was quite old and had a number of security vulnerabilities. They may have been the best in the area for trauma, but were far from the most secure. He would have to see if he could set up a meeting with the director to discuss it. Again.

"She'll be in room 517. We will have her in there shortly. She won't wake up for quite a while and when she does she will be very groggy and most likely have lots of questions. We're going to keep her for a while until we can be sure nothing will get infected and make sure things heal properly."

Bruce nodded along absentmindedly until he came across the elevator and was ready to go up. He wanted to check out the room before she got there, make sure there were no surprises or anything out of place. After tonight, he wasn't going to be taking any kind of chances, with anyone.

He'd not only had to face the possibility of losing Selina, but had actually lost Harvey. Harvey would never be okay and would never rise up and triumph over the other personality that took over his mind. Bruce had always hoped Harvey would one day be able to beat his demons, and had told the staff at Arkham if there was anything Dent had needed, he would pay for it without question. Even if that meant getting the world's best plastic surgeons and fixing Harvey's face.

But none of that could happen now. Harvey had died as TwoFace and even though there was still the good man inside him that had died too, all anyone would remember was Twoface. Harvey had never gotten another chance to redeem himself, to get better, or to change. He would always be TwoFace now, and Twoface had come into Harvey's life violently and ended him violently.

Bruce didn't know at first which room 517 was but if he had been forced to guess he would have picked the one with the police officer, a young looking one at that, standing outside of the room. Maybe he was fresh out of academy, no more than 2 years out. His posture was rigid, he was scanning the area around him constantly, and he excluded a proper air of authority.

"ID?" the officer asked, polite but firm. Definitely a recent Academy Grad then.

"Don't you know who he is?" A nurse hissed at him as she went in to adjust something in the room. The cop didn't move, something Bruce appreciated. Seems like there were good ones coming in to the force, which would be something to be happy about.

"It's no big deal, I'm glad you're asking everyone." Bruce smiled and handed over his ID, which caused the officer to smile back after checking it. Even though most cops worked hard to avoid getting guard duty, this job needed someone dedicated.

"I'm going to be here until 6 Sir, the next officer on rotation will be Officer Morris." The policeman, Officer Rodgers according to his name-tag was great. Bruce would have to make sure to let Jim know how good his people were. All the press and the city government wanted to talk about were the few crooked ones.

"Thank you officer." Bruce nodded and went inside the room.

The nurse from earlier was checking something into the computer, documenting what was supposed to be in the room and making sure everything was appropriate and in its proper placement. She didn't say anything to Bruce, and he went over to the window, pretending to look outside.

In reality, he was looking for possible vantage points to get a shot in through the window based on where the bed would be. That narrowed down possible, but not confirmed usable sites, to 3 buildings. The sniper seemed to like aiming for the head, which reduced the number of locations down to 1. Nothing closing the curtains couldn't help with. The only problem would be if he had planned on her being in this room, and if he had already set up his location.

If Selina was even a target. Which, until Bruce had evidence otherwise, he would assume everyone was.

Bruce shut the curtain as soon as the door opened and Selina was brought in. She was changed into a hospital gown, but she looked like she was sleeping. Not restfully, but she looked normal from where he was. Bruce knew the extent of the damage below her ribcage, but it wasn't even noticeable when you looked at her head-on. Her dark hair was tousled all over the place, as usual for her on a normal day.

"She'll probably wake up in 3 hours or so" a man at the side stated, as though it should be obvious to everyone in the room. "When she does please let the nurse on call know."

After hearing those instructions, Bruce was left alone with Selina, nothing around him besides Officer Rodgers on the other side of the door and the machines that monitored everything about Selina. Bruce managed to lay down on the visitor's couch, even though it appeared to be made for someone at least 6 inches shorter than himself. He couldn't sleep, but he could watch over her during the night, like he always did. It brought him a small measure of comfort, even if she didn't know it.

* * *

 **05:52**

 **Room 517, Gotham Mercy Hospital, Gotham City**

 **Selina**

Her head felt fuzzy, her mouth felt dry and she all around felt like she had been floating but was rapidly approaching a hard surface. There was a throbbing pain in her side, and her eyelids felt heavier than they had in a long time.

Selina, through unfortunate prior experience, knew what waking up drugged felt like. She just didn't remember why, there was a banquet, no a gala, and then Harvey had come, even though he had promised to stay out of trouble. Harvey? What had he been doing there? That didn't make any sense at all.

"Mphm" was all she could get out for a few moments, and she focused more on her surroundings. Think Selina, she told herself. She could smell the sterilization, and hear the beeps and, she was in a hospital? Opening her eyes, despite not wanting to, confirmed that that was exactly where she was, with Bruce half laying half sitting on the seat next to the bed, watching over her. Of course they would have called him in.

"Hey there." His tone was light but it didn't match his body language or his facial expression. Something was wrong. "How are you feeling?"

" 'ater" she got out, and Bruce stood up and pushed a button on the wall, presumably to call a nurse.

"You're going to have to take it easy, you only got out of surgery a few hours ago." He tried to explain, not that he was making any sense. "You were attacked and they needed to operate to fix it. But you're going to be fine."

The words, although Selina knew what they meant, did not seem to register with her at the moment. Some far off portion of her brain knew what he was saying and was going over the implication but right now the front of her brain, the part that was the most demanding anyway, really wanted water and to go back to sleep. She felt like lead and even though she knew it was the drugs, it was still not a pleasant feeling.

A nurse came in and instantly started doing something with her IV, checking over her numbers and generally looking her over. Selina had always hated doctors, hated them more than almost anything. She'd been terrified as a little kid of medical personnel, probably because whenever she was around doctors it generally meant bad news. Bruce kindly requested water for her so she didn't have to speak and Selina let her head fall back, focusing on being still and not moving too much, least she annoy her side.

Once the water came, she was almost surprised Bruce was the one who was gently taking care of her, maybe there was more to Dick's teasing than she had thought, but her brain didn't want to focus on anything but water. She felt like she had been hit by a train, and the ice chips helped soothe her throat and the feeling of cotton in her mouth into something more bearable.

As she drifted off back to sleep, hearing Bruce off in the distance, her mind went to blank and Selina just slept. It meant no nightmares, no unexpected surprises, and that she didn't have to figure out what had happened just yet. Right now she didn't have to feel, and sometimes, that was all Selina wanted.


	6. Chapter 6

**15:46**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

Selina had finally kicked him out of her hospital room. She had said she didn't need a babysitter or guard service and that as long as he stopped by her apartment, took care of her cat and the mail, he fulfilled his friendship duties in her book. Oh and speaking of books some would be nice to have in the room; it was currently pretty dull staring at the ceiling until the next medical person came in. He was going to go back later that afternoon of course, and tonight, because that's what friends were for. And maybe even more than that.

First he had a discussion with Dick and Barbara at a little café in midtown Gotham that was un-remarkable in every single way. It was incredibly ordinary, right down to the wall décor. It could have been the set from a movie that needed a scene in stereotypical retro American diner/burger joint. The waitresses were the same way, pretty, young, some kind of student, or an older motherly type who was gruff on the outside but provided occasional bouts of advice.

It was one such quips that inspired this conversation. The words "go chase the girl or she'll get away", not even said to Bruce but another patron complaining about girl problems, had never seemed more real than now. To say they were both excited at his proposal to come clean to Selina was a monumental understatement. Instead of the resistance he had expected at Catwoman learning who they were, they both welcomed the idea and thought it was a good idea. Not just a good idea, one of the best he had in a long time, although Bruce chose to ignore that jab from Dick. Apparently they both had come to the conclusion, though together or independently Bruce would not know, that she had reformed enough that to be trusted with their respective secret identities. They trusted her and liked having her around, and had come to that conclusion before Bruce had.

It wasn't so much that Bruce hadn't trusted her, it was more he was afraid of what it meant though he would never admit it to anyone, least of all himself. That would require thinking about his feelings, something Bruce did not do very well. The last time he had trusted someone like that had ended in a spectacularly poor fashion, and he needed to make sure he wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. A fact both Dick and Barbara were assuring him of. Bruce had needed that last little nudge to get over the voice in his head that always cautioned that he be careful, take the road alone and not let anyone in, least he get hurt.

Nervous at the coming sunset was an understatement but Bruce found himself having a little optimism instead of his usual pessimistic worldview he liked to call realism. Besides, if it had been a hit on Selina, Catwoman on his side was a distinct advantage that would be good to have, especially considering her underworld connections went in a different direction than his own. While Catwoman's connections were maintained out of a friendship with fellow rogues and a deep respect for her abilities, Batman's had been forged with fear and malice. Batman learned things for two reasons: fear of going to Arkham or Blackgate if cooperation didn't occur, or to get revenge on another rogue and hide behind Batman to avoid retribution. Catwoman learned things because people genuinely wanted to keep her in the loop. It was very different.

If only his new-found optimism extended to other areas in his life. The Manor was crawling with large black chevys and Bruce's sensors had picked up a few in surrounding locations. Thanks to some feline inspired updates, he could tell a great deal about anything above, around, below or in the manor. The Federal Government had really gone all out on this, a fact that Bruce wasn't sure was comforting or worrying. He'd avoided going home for that exact reason, not wanting to deal with the Fed's finest.

But there was only so long he could avoid his problems, it would be suspicious if he didn't even stop by his own home as Bruce Wayne and check in on his parents, and his hackles were raised even more when he ran into Amanda Waller at the door. Just the person he didn't want to see.

"Hello Mam'. Anything I can help you with?" Calm collected Bruce Wayne was on the outside, being grateful that the Federal Government was devoting so much time after the last time they had screwed up. Inner Batman knew the only time Waller got called in was when someone of the costumed or super variety was involved or suspected to be involved. Which made going to Selina's apartment and getting that file all the more important, he needed to know what they knew, or at least suspected. Waller had made quite the reputation for herself, even going as far as to suggest villains could be used for good if controlled the right way. Waller was dangerous, and her at his house did not bode well for the Batman or Bruce. Yet another reason to be concerned instead of relieved. If she was sniffing around his house what did she suspect?

"No Mr. Wayne." She replied curtly and Bruce nodded and smiled. Play the dumb civilian Bruce, the grateful son, that was all he had to do. Waller would probably see right through it but there was nothing she could do about it. For now. He'd have to devote some more time to making sure he knew what she knew and that he didn't miss anything when his algorithms went through her correspondence.

"I see. If that changes, please don't hesitate to ask for anything. I can't tell you how grateful I am that the FBI is here."

She was not official FBI and Bruce had the satisfaction of seeing her nostrils flare. As she thanked him for his platitudes, promising the empty promise that she would take him up on it, Bruce entered his house and found people all over. It looked like a scene from an action flick that existed solely to explode things and shoot guns was about to occur in his house. Alfred was surely in a hissyfit with this many people in and out of the home.

Amanda Waller here meant a few things. Either she knew about the cave downstairs, which was not likely, or the more likely idea that she was there to ensure the Wayne's disappearance and reappearance was man-created, not meta human or whatever she chose to call people. Bruce was betting on the latter, though it would be irresponsible of him to ignore the first one. Extra precautions would have to be taken, which meant he would be visiting Selina in the city probably a lot more than she probably wanted him to. Lucius would also be pretty happy that he'd be in the office more.

Alfred met him in the foyer, knowing the look on his face. Alfred had access to all the files, he knew who Waller was and probably had some of the same worries. Knowing Alfred, he had run a check on everyone who had entered the manor today or was around the manor today, a fact that was confirmed when Alfred said something offhand about how clean things were. Everyone in the manor either had criminal or malignant connections that were not discovered by multiple organizations, or were government branded. Which could be its own kind of dangerous.

"Your parents are in the library with the Agent in Charge Sir, an Agent Elliott" Alfred was calm and collected. Bruce knew the smaller signs the man displayed when his feathers were ruffled. Though what the Federal Agents had done to irritate the butler could have been anything from treating him like the help or messing up the kitchen in pursuit of food.

"Thank you Alfred. I won't be here long. I'm going to collect a few things and head back into the city to be with Selina." Also known as moving the Batman operation to a Batcave that was accessed through an old warehouse in CrimeAlley that had gone into bank foreclosure a long time ago and the bank had turned around and sold to an offshore shipping company that happened to be a dummy cooperation. Technically the property didn't exist in records the city had, and was just a normal building on the outside but under was a batcave. It was such a forgotten property in fact, TwoFace had once tried to put in a liar there. That had been put down rather quickly.

Dick had gotten him the results from last night. The Sniper had picked a vantage point that indicated a highly skilled professional. There weren't a massive amount of people in the world trained to take the shot that had killed Harvey Dent, which shortened the suspect pool considerably. Of the Gotham Players, very few had the people with the skills to pull off a hit like that, or the money to pay off the kind of individual who could. It narrowed the suspect pool down considerably, but all of them were dangerous.

That had been farther confirmed when the autopsy came back and found the bullet was a highly special kind. The kind only available to elite military units or someone with a lot of money and connections. Bullets that exploded into tiny pieces of shrapnel once hitting their target where not an ordinary market commodity. The idea that it had been a shot at Selina or Nightwing diminished when Bruce read the report of the autopsy. The precise spot where Harvey Dent had been shot was incredibly hard to hit without skill or someone had a great deal of luck. Batman was willing to bet this guy had skills like this in spades.

Someone had paid a lot of money and gone to a considerable amount of trouble to take out Harvey Dent in a very public fashion. TwoFace's enemies that had the ability to order this kind of hit, what few of them there were, had drastically different styles than the way Harvey had died.

That meant the hit came from outside Gotham or someone was trying extra hard to not get connected with it. The criminal underworld was reeling, with reactions ranging from Poison Ivy being angry she hadn't gotten to do it personally to Cobblepot mourning a friend. Rogues were suddenly a lot more fearful, and while normally Batman would be grateful for that kind of thing, Batman didn't like someone moving in on this city. A killer was a killer, no matter who died.

Bruce opened his door to pack some of his things and came face to face with a Federal Agent, who for their part had the decency to look flustered.

"I'm guessing this isn't the bathroom?" the agent mumbled while Bruce managed to get out a curt no. It wasn't that he was afraid the man would find anything, Bruce was a master at hiding things and security systems after all. It was more that they would even consider going through his things that made him angry. He was no Tommy Elliott and he hoped they had figured that out by now.

First he pulled a few devices out of a loose floorboard that was hidden under a false bottom in the dresser. Then he swept the room for bugs and after finding none he set to work on moving a few things in the closet around in a certain way that triggered a reaction and opened up a hatch with a small lead-lined suitcase with everything he would need inside. After adding his regular clothes to a separate suitcase and call to a hotel in Gotham that had an easy surveillance system he could hack in to make sure his coming and goings would not be able to be tracked, Bruce was on his way. This would work for now. Eventually the Federal government would leave. They had to go chase the bad guy right?

Dick was coming too, under the excuse that he should be out of the way while investigators did their work and that a large investigation like this was no place for a teenager going through highschool. The idea had made Dick laugh, and considering all the boy had been through, Bruce supposed he would laugh too. He'd probably had more action taking down thugs than some of these suits did.

Alfred planned to keep the manor under control and report anything worth reporting on a burner phone that had been bought from a dingy convenience store in Bludhaven by a guy in a Cubs baseball cap who had paid in cash that had come in the form of change from various diners scattered over a large geographical area. Not that the disguise had mattered, the cameras in the store didn't always work anyways. But it was the thought that mattered, careless people were dead people, no matter what side they were on. Every possibility had been thought of, taken care of, and implemented while Bruce had sat and watched over Selina.

She was still feeling the effects of the drugs, and even though he knew she felt a lot of grief at Harvey's death even though he'd put a rather large hole in her side, though for a different reason than the one Bruce was supposed to know, she had been holding up pretty well. She had given him her keys without a fight which had been unexpected, though it was under the pretense to check up on her cat.

Her place had been undisturbed, and Brue had picked up on how to tell. No one had been in the apartment since the time he had swung by to pick her up. Selina had a few tricks and small security things she did in order to make sure no one was sneaking through her stuff. That had all been left intact and undisturbed. Which was a relief. It seemed that maybe TwoFace stabbing Selina Kyle had been random, and not him targeting Catwoman, as much as Bruce hated chalking things up to chance.

* * *

 **16:00**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham city**

 **Alfred**

His perfectly organized manor was being turned upside down by curious Feds. It was a disgrace, bringing this many agents as though the Waynes had done something wrong, Alfred knew it was measure of caution and an order from the head of the FBI to not fuck this up again, but it still made him bristle. Americans, they had no tact or finesse for an investigation and Alfred had more than enough room to criticize.

His ire had only grown at the supervisory presence of Amanda Waller. She had been introduced as a person from inside the FBI to make sure everyone did their job, but Alfred knew what she really did. He'd had an old pal over on the British side of things look her up so his opinion wasn't only formed on Bruce's opinion, and discovered she had quite a sheet of skills, accomplishments, and claims to fame. Her presence did not rattle him, no one really did rattle Alfred, but he did not like it all the same. Especially seeing as she had turned up her nose at the offer of a sandwich from the kitchen which was incredibly rude, preferring to come back with some greasy monstrosity. It appeared everyone had their vices.

He'd also had to chase multiple agents out of multiple places they did not belong all day. He'd given the one looking through the pantry, the pantry of all places, a fright and Alfred gave him what Dick referred to as the Bat-stare. The icy look that made a person feel small and shame at their actions, as well as a sense of forbidding. The agent had scurried off only to later get caught messing with things in the study. some people would never learn tact when looking through other's things now would they? Had to be a rookie or some dim-wit from forensics, who didn't have to care that people still lived in the place they were looking through.

Alfred didn't believe the man was a distraction for him, in fact Alfred knew where everyone was in the manor at all times. More like the Fed were grasping at anything they could find to give them a lead, which went they were probably desperate. Which Alfred knew, was not good. It felt like twenty years ago all over again, sitting in FBI headquarters with a young Bruce and hearing that the FBI would do what it can but there had been no leads so far.

Federal Bureau of Incompetence indeed.

Bruce had managed to get in and out of the house without attracting too much attention. The Agent in Charge had mentioned wanting to speak to Bruce but acted as though he was in no hurry to track the young Mr. Wayne down for questions. For his part the agent had the decency to look sufficiently embarrassed when he was called out for his men sneaking around. Not enough in Alfred's opinion but one apology was better than no apology.

Both Alfred and Bruce did not have a problem with agents searching through the house. Bruce was confident that they could look for months and never find any of the house's secrets, which was why he had told them if they were of need of anything to ask Alfred to take them to it. It was the lack of asking that drove Alfred batty. How rude, and inconsiderate and in a victim's home to boot. Americans never really did get manners.

"Was that Mr. Wayne I heard leaving?" Waller inquired, and if Alfred had not been used to Bruce sneaking up on people, he would have jumped.

"Yes it was. He's off to the city."

"Why." It wasn't a question, it was a demand, and even though Alfred was not military anymore, he still bristled at the nerve of some people. She probably knew all the places he had been and the things he had done for her majesty and yet she still treated him like some underling to boss around. No wonder people requested overseas assignments to get away from her.

"Have you not heard?" Alfred replied, and was delighted to see a brief flicker of surprise. "Last night, at the charity gala, it was held up by the gangster known as TwoFace. Selina Kyle, a dear friend of Master Wayne, was stabbed in the process. She's in the hospital. Poor dear doesn't have any close family in the city, so Master Bruce is keeping an eye on her."

"How kind of him." Waller replied flatly, "Dick Grayson went with him."

"Of course. This kind of investigation is no environment for a boy trying to study well for his SATs and trying to get into college. They are staying at a hotel in the city, shall I get you the address?" Alfred knew he was being deliberately grating, but it was not like she could call him out on it. What, a butler being too helpful? Unheard of. No, she would have to deal with his cheerful demeanor and bubbly personality. She underestimated him, arrogant woman, and it was better to keep it that way.

"That would be most helpful. Thank you Pennyworth."

Alfred couldn't help but make a grimace at her retreating back. That was Mr. Pennyworth to her.

* * *

 **02:00**

 **Gotham Mercy Hospital, Gotham City**

 **Selina**

All Selina knew was that she would never take for granted something as simple as eating or walking without pain for granted ever again. She had been injured before but never like this. She had done nothing but been poked and prodded at, and Selina hated every second of it. She hated feeling powerless, and hated that Bruce felt like he needed to babysit her.

OF all the people's presences, she couldn't decide whether his or the GCPD officer stationed at her door were more smothering. Things already took longer to get to her because Gotham's finest stood in their way, and even when the police had been here to take her statement, she hadn't felt boxed in.

Selina had promised herself a long time ago that nothing would ever keep her in any kind of cage, whether it was steel bars or gilded, or mental, physical, emotional, what have you. She was a free woman, she was Catwoman, the fear of jewelry owners everywhere. She was not some little victim who needed her hand held and a guardian angel. She was a survivor, and she was a fighter.

The drugs were what had messed with her head the most. She felt like everything was in some kind of haze, almost like she was not really there. OF course when her meds started to wear off and it was time for more pain meds she could feel herself coming back out of the fog, especially where she'd gone and gotten stabbed, but until those moments, she felt like she was somewhere else entirely.

She'd been in and out of consciousness all day, having nothing to do in this joint but sleep or get prodded in the name of physical therapy and healing. Even eating was a struggle, her digestive system had taken a slash and needed to heal before it could work like it always had.

She wasn't used to sleeping or waking up with the drugs, which is why it took her a few moments to recognize there was a dark figure in the corner of the room. Just the shadow, and would be dismissed as nothing if there hadn't been eyes. Most people would have tensed up, started an adrenaline response, hit the call nurse button, something. But Selina Kyle was not most people, and she knew she didn't have anything to be afraid of from the guy dressed up in a batsuit. A fact farther confirmed by the fact he'd brought her flowers.

"For me?" She said sweetly, and got no response at first. "You shouldn't have. Let me see them, they look lovely."

That got a response, and she took the flowers from his carefully outstretched hand. They were purple, just like the color of one of her more dramatic suits and her favorite flower, Irises. They were her favorite, though how he knew that she didn't have the energy to guess at the moment. He'd probably done something silly, like snuck in her house and looked at some of her flower related décor. Or he'd been like most men and gone to a flowershop and asked for whatever was purple. The thought of Batman going to a flowershop was funny and she giggled a bit, something she regretted when pain shot up.

"Do you like them?" The voice wasn't batman, not the one she was used to. It was softer, gentler and concerned. It made her blood boil for some reason, though why she wasn't able to articulate at the moment. Even he was treating her like she was fragile. He who should know better, having been slammed into a rooftop, fire escape, pane of glass, concrete, baseball bat, basically everything that could be a weapon by her very hands. She was Catwoman not some stupid damsel in distress.

"They'll do. Especially since you almost let me get skewered like a ka-bob." There was a lot more venom in that statement than there had been when she thought the words in her head. Her words had clawed deep too, a slight shift in his stance, no longer so friendly and a tightening of facial features.

"Nightwing handled it." The response was the Batman she was more familiar with, cold, detached and analytical. But Selina didn't care about that or the fact she was pushing his buttons even after he'd gone and done something thoughtful. She wanted answers, why she didn't know but she wanted them. Who did he think she was, a victim?

"If you had been there I wouldn't be in the hospital." She and the Birdy had never gotten along. He'd always been in her business about something and had an annoying habit just like his partner of being exactly where she didn't want him. Unlike his Batlike partner, Birdy was a lot more vocal, flashy, and not at all Selina's style. What he lacked in strength he made up in speed, which was her thing. Clashing would have been an understatement.

"Well I wasn't able to be right there. TwoFace didn't kill you, Nightwing handled it and then searched for the sniper. He did all that was possible for him to do." There was a finality to it and a small note of frustration, and it only made her angrier. Selina knew in a part of her it wasn't because she was mad at him, she was mad at her situation.

"Maybe you should have been." She snapped, hoping to wound but this time he didn't move at all. He was very very still. They spent a long time looking at each other, her trying to be calm again and him doing whatever it was he did when he got quiet.

"Would you like me to go?" He asked softly, the nicer Batman back. The one she felt like she had gotten to know better and better, the one she wanted to be close to. The same one who made her feel like she was a china doll who'd gotten dropped and need consoling.

"Yes." She answered before she could really realize what she was doing. "Your files are in my safe. Combo is the day I adopted Isis."

He seemed sad, but she wasn't about to back down. He could handle it, she would feel better soon, set off an alarm in the art museum, apologize and things would be fine. Someone, at least a little bit could share some of her pain right now.

"Good-night Selina. If you need me tell the officer outside to pass it along to Gordon" The soft tone was back and then he was gone, the curtains flipping in the breeze. If the window had never been opened, it would be like he had never been there. Except for the flowers, those she sat on her bedside table. Maybe it would convince her to be extra nice to him when she met him on a roof again. In her purple catsuit.

* * *

 **4:46**

 **Crime Alley Batcave, Gotham City**

 **Dick**

He was taking longer than he normally would. Normally, he would have been back now, they would have finished logs and all said good-nights and gone to sleep and Babs would have gone home so her dad didn't discover his darling daughter moonlighted as a crime fighter or worse, run off with a boy to do it. Normally, him and Babs would not be waiting in the Batcave, half asleep, waiting to hear how things went with Selina like anxious parents.

This was a big deal. When he'd first been brought into the Wayne home, he'd asked Alfred why Bruce wasn't married. At first the excuse had been that he was still young, but over time that morphed into he was Batman. The uniform didn't come with a wife, or even a girlfriend. He had a few friends he'd make appearances with at events and then the tabloids would twitter, only to die down afterwards. Selina was the first one who'd really been around a light, and Dick knew she was special when he managed to get a small blush out of his mentor when he brought up her and Batman. It had been subtle, barely a few shades redder, but Dick would tell anyone who believed him it had happened, even though even Alfred was a bit skeptical.

The rumble of a car got them both awake, and just looking over at Babs, Dick knew she was excited. She had thought it was cute in that way teen girls did when people got together or would make a good couple. Dick had resolved to himself, that if Bruce could find it in his shy, socially-stunted self to tell his girlfriend who wasn't his girlfriend that he meet on a roof in the middle of the night who he really was, Dick could tell Babs how he felt about her and ask her to go to Gotham Prep's formal that was coming up. As his date, not his friend. That distinction was very important.

"Get ready!" Babs whisper-squealed, and looked very excited. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Dick couldn't help but get excited too. This was it, this was the big one.

She quickly went back to neutral face when confronted with a blood-covered, very pissed off Batman. The suit even looked a shade darker from all the blood, sweat and water it had no doubt gotten on it. Uh-oh. Batman only went on a rampage like this for a few reasons. Reason number one was it was his parent's disappearance anniversary. Two, they were working against a time table and lives depended on it. Three, something deeply upset him in his life, he had been taken off guard by something or found out something unpleasant. Like the time Dick and Alfred had conspired together to make him take a mandatory vacation. Criminals in Blackgate referred to it as the night the knight went berserk.

"Why. Are. You. Two. Still. Up." It wasn't a question, and it wasn't anything that Dick or Barbara were supposed to answer. Dick had only made that mistake once, and had forewarned Barbara about the tone. "You two should have gone to bed and gone to sleep, over an hour ago. Now go."

Neither Nightwing or Batgirl needed telling twice, and quickly scuttled off to another part of the batcave, letting Bruce have his alone time to think and process over what was going on. He would eventually come around and stop being so snappy, in like a week or so. If Dick and Barabra didn't bother him they wouldn't have to do some stupid chore as punishment for bothering him, like verbally encouraging grass to grow to get better in-tuned with how Ivy thought.

"That bad huh?" Barbara whispered and Dick nodded in the affirmative. He wouldn't know what happened until he got his hands on the log, and Bruce would put it in his log like he did everything else. The second the man wasn't looking, Dick would have it in his possession and would send a summary to Barabra.

"I'll let you know when I find out." He whispered softly, even for a human Batman had good hearing and hated having background noise that was human made. She nodded and both went to leave, Dick insisting on taking her back since it was so much later than usual. It would give them a chance to gossip on the way back and share theories on what they thought had gone down.

And maybe, just maybe, Dick would have the guts to ask Barbara out. Maybe.

* * *

Hey guys, sorry for the delay I got sick and have some exams coming up. I was also pretty unhappy with this chapter although I can't find out why, so if you think you know, let me know in a review please.


	7. Chapter 7

**07:30**

 **Blue Mercedes, Highway 121-75, Gotham City**

 **Dick**

He still didn't feel awake, not that he had gotten any real sleep anyways. He'd spent a long time last night talking to Barbara about what Catwoman could have possibly done to inspire such a reaction. Theories ranged from her throwing something at him for not telling her sooner and being angry at him for it, to completely losing interest once she knew who the man under the mask was. His personal favorite, ridiculous as it was, was that Bruce had told her in order to learn who he was she had to answer some dumb riddle.

After getting home, much later than he should have, he returned to find Bruce still pounding away on his computer in "Do not Disturb" mode. He hadn't even looked up when Dick walked back in, and didn't even scold him for returning so late or for returning with Chinese take-out. He was fully immersed into the computer in front of him, doing, whatever it was Bruce did.

Dick had carefully placed the fried rice he picked up for Bruce close but not too close to the keyboard Bruce currently seemed to be using as a punching bag for his fingertips, and went off to eat. After inhaling his food, Dick then crashed on a nearby cot, not even bothering to take his costume off.

He didn't even remember falling asleep when he had been unceremoniously woken up an hour later, still groggy, with the terse instructions of get ready for school. Dick knew better to argue with him when he was in that mood, only Alfred could stand up to Bruce when he was like this. Even so, Alfred knew there were some battles that simply weren't worth picking.

He'd been so sleepy in fact, it had taken until now for Dick to realize he was in the car, wearing a rather creased school uniform, and that his backpack had been put on the seat next to him. All of it had been done on autopilot.

"Do I have to go to school, I feel groggy still." Dick complained from the backseat, letting Bruce sit in the front, who for his lack of sleep seemed perfectly put together. Damn him. How did he do that, was it just a Batman thing or something Bruce was born with? Bruce seemed to be able to go without sleep for days on end.

"Yes."

"Please? But I won't function well and we can say I'm still dealing with the investigation stuff and can't return for a few more days." Even though he was totally removed from the investigation, his school didn't have to know that. Besides, Dick wasn't in the mood to see Barbara so soon, especially after he had chickened out on asking out her again. That's not even counting the mob of reporters who probably camped outside his school grounds, and gossipy students and faculty of the school itself. It sounded like a nightmare.

Bruce didn't say anything, but Dick noticed when the exit they were supposed to take came and went. Dick let out a small sigh of relief. He didn't care where they were going, or what Bruce wanted to go do, or even that it would probably be more draining than what school would be, he was just glad to avoid the circus. No offense to his family of course.

"Thank you." He mumbled sleepily, and drifted off back to sleep, missing the very soft "You're welcome" coming from the front seat.

Dick woke up hours later, with the sun high in sky and in a completely unfamiliar landscape than the one he had last seen. Bruce was still quiet, not saying anything, and then Dick finally took in the piles on the front seat. The most noticeable one was the FBI file and the big red word confidential sprawled all over it. There were a few unmarked books, and some of Bruce's personal handwritten notes along with a ton of info on Two-Face, some still in their original GCPD folders.

Dick had stopped questioning how Bruce got things a while ago. He always seemed to know where things in evidence lockers that weren't filed on any computer were, along with where any tiny clue would be left behind. He'd even somehow gotten his hands on his parents' wedding rings, even when the police were supposedly looking them over, something Dick treasured and was grateful for.

They finally made it into a small, dinky looking town, the kind that existed only for road travelers to make stops along the highway. A worn down, old signed proclaimed "Welcome to Fairfax!", although the sign was the happiest looking thing Dick had seen so far. The shops all seemed run down, the cars were all at least ten years old, and no one seemed to be outside. The streets were bare, and more buildings look abandoned than not. Vegetation had taken over some buildings along the main road, and none of the lights worked, all blinking red.

"Where are we?" Dick wondered out loud, and rolled his eyes when the response was Fairfax, didn't he read the sign? Typical smart ass response, not that Dick would ever say it out loud. Bruce didn't seem to be in a joking mood.

"Why are we here?" Dick tried again, which seemed to make Bruce lighten up a bit.

"There's a contact here I need to talk to, it's about the sniper investigation."

Of course brief was all Dick was going to get. Bruce did not ever really elaborate on anything, and anything personal he was extra tight lipped about. Dick had no idea where his thought process was, and knew the only way to find out was to observe.

Bruce had always given him a hard time for his tendency to rush into things. Patience was not a strong suit of Dick's, and even though he had gotten much better in recent years, Dick still preferred to act rather than just observe. Probably why whenever he got in trouble his punishment was look-out duty.

He pulled his phone out to check it, ignoring the multiple messages asking for details on his new grandparents, and only replied to Barbara wondering where he was. He knew she would be even less satisfied with the answer, Fairfax, but that was all he had. She'd go straight to the computer and do some research, she was a miracle worker on group projects. She'd come up with answers.

As Bruce turned off onto a smaller road, one that probably hadn't been worked on since it was first paved, Dick got the weird feeling he didn't really belong in this place. It just felt, odd. Not odd in the way that some seedy parts of Gotham felt, but odd in that he wasn't supposed to have found this town. Like he had disturbed something he wasn't supposed to.

Bruce picked a yellow house with a rusted old gate out front and peeling paint to stop in front of. Dick was pretty sure there were few things that would stand out more than the two of them. The windows looked like they hadn't been washed in years, and a very large private property, do not trespass sign showed the owner wasn't someone who liked having guests. Which of course was exactly who they were going to talk to.

Dick hurried to keep up with Bruce, the bright sun shining down on grass that had long ago died, and followed his mentor to the front door. There was no need to knock as the door swung open, seemingly on its own, until Dick made out the silhouette of a man. Lanky was the only way to really describe him, and as Dick got a better look at his face, he seemed very out of place for the house. His clothes were pressed, well taken care of and looked expensive.

"I've been expecting you." The figure spoke, with an old aristocratic accent. Dick couldn't quite place where the man must be from, middle or west Europe probably, but Bruce didn't seem bothered at all. Dick started to run over where exactly the man could be from, maybe somewhere with a romance language? There was no one accent to pinpoint his origin on, it's like they had all blended together.

"Nice to see you too Jason." Bruce grumbled, and for someone who had driven all this way he seemed irritated at the house-owner's presence. Or maybe it was just someone doing what he did to other people to him.

"And who is your bird friend?" Jason asked, looking over Dick as if studying him.

Dick felt shivers sneak up his spine. How did this man know who he was? Why use the word bird at all? Did this man know Bruce was Batman? "Dick. Dick Grayson." Oh well. Better to be polite than offend someone. Some people were so touchy about manners and social etiquette.

The man in the doorway smiled, perfect white teeth a stark contrast to his tanner skin and auburn hair. "Nice to finally meet you in person Dick. My name is Jason Blood."

In person? What the hell did that mean? Did you meet someone in any other way?

"May we come inside?" Bruce asked pointedly, never one for formalities like waiting to be invited in. Jason Blood, what an odd name, it couldn't be his real one, stepped aside back into the darkness of the house to let them by and into the old structure.

The windows were all covered, and an old fashioned candle attempted to light the home up. The stairs off to his side looked rotten and like they might collapse if a man too large stepped on them. The kitchen was old, once white appliances now yellow with age, and the table looked like something picked up at a garage sale.

That was not the most interesting part of the room. The large leather armchairs, centered around the fireplace that still glowed, seemed drastically out of place next to all the other old and worn down pieces in the room. Odds and ends, knick-knacks like stones and crystals and some odd books, swords and other things lined the bookshelf.

Jason Blood settled into a nearby armchair, closed his eyes for a moment before snapping them open and wearing a very intense expression. "What is it about the case file that bothers you Dark Knight?"

"Two-Face wasn't himself. Nothing in his behavior was consistent with his personality or previous mental breaks. The entire situation seemed to be a performance put on by someone who knew of Two-Face, rather than a legitimate Two-Face operation."

Jason Blood smiled and Dick still felt his blood run cold. He wondered if that was how bad guys felt when Bruce stared them down. That deep feeling of dread, and fear that something was coming for you that you couldn't stop.

"You would be correct. That was not Two-Face."

Not Two-face? But how? Dick had watched the head explode, watched the coroners take away the body and even checked in the morgue to make sure it wasn't clayface pulling some scheme again. Nothing. It had really been Harvey Dent shot to death in front of Gotham's highest social elites.

Sensing his confusion, Jason choose to elaborate. "At least, it wasn't the Two-Face you know. It was someone using him as a puppet and discarding him when his part in the story had played out. When his path came to an end. When the stream hit the rocks. When his flame was put out, his string was cut, pick your metaphor."

Bruce didn't like that answer. "And what path are we headed down now?"

Jason shrugged almost casually. "You know Etrigan and I don't see the future, it doesn't work like that, we just sense paths. It comes with using magic and doing what we do for so long. We can see the signs. Things are changing, and things are changing fast, that's all I can say and all I can tell you."

"Magic, what?" Dick blurted out, earning himself a glare from an unhappy Batman and a chuckle from Jason/Etrigan. He laced his fingers together and looked over at Dick, almost sinister with glee at an audience.

"Magic is very real Nightwing. Remember that. But like all things, it comes at a price. Someone paid a high price for the Two-Face performance."

"Well if that's all-" Bruce started but was cut-off.

"Be careful Dark Knight. The path is twisting and things are growing dark." It wasn't Jason's voice anymore, it was darker, deeper and sounded like it was straight out of a well-done horror film. Dick was done asking questions and had moved to the idea that he was either still asleep or going crazy.

"Thank you Etrigan." Bruce stated. If the prediction of darkness and bad stuff in the future rattled him, he didn't let it show. Ever the one who handled stress well and odd situations all the time.

Dick could remember the first time he had almost died while out on patrol. It was six months into his job as Robin, and he'd been doing some recon work on a smuggling operation Penguin had his fingers in. One moment he'd been on a roof doing safe surveillance, the next he got the beating of a life-time and was attached to an iceberg lounge chandelier with various villains bidding on who got to kill the birdy.

Even after being rescued Dick had been jumpy and nervous. Bruce had dragged him out as soon as he was better, saying he needed to get over his fears. Not that it had been that easy. Dick had frozen up at a critical moment, tried to run in situations he didn't need to, and generally freaked out. Bruce had the patience of a saint through all of it, and was never bothered by anything.

"Is there anything you can tell us that Jason can't Etrigan?"

The voice seemed to start laughing, a sound more malevolent than Joker's giggles, and Dick was all kinds of done with his current scenario. He almost wished he had gone to school. Almost. "You know we've told you everything Dark Knight. All I can do is wish you well."

"That seems like a threat coming from you."

The voice, or whatever Etrigan was, laughed again. "I knew there was a reason I liked you Dark Knight. I think I'll like you a lot more at the end of this path. Provided it plays out like it did the last time of course."

That caught Bruce's attention and he went from playing along, amused, to serious. "What does that mean, what happened last time?" he demanded and was only meant with laughter. It built on itself until Dick felt like it surrounded him, swallowing them up into a fate they were unable to escape.

Jason, Etrigan, whoever the hell he was, leapt to his feet and the noise ceased. He looked over at an upset Bruce and Dick, and silently shook his head. "He wanted to talk. I should have known."

"It's okay Jason." Bruce said softly, his mind already millions of miles away from the present. "He was trying to be helpful."

Jason's shoulders slumped with relief. "You never can tell with him. He either wants to help or wreak havoc."

Dick had concluded he was looking at the world's first documented case of multiple personality disorder or dissociative identity disorder, and that he believed in magic. This visit didn't make sense, Bruce was a scientist, and didn't believe in anything unless there was science behind it, along with logic and reasoning.

Jason straightened up, as if he noticed Dick for the first time. "Is there anything I can get you guests?"

Dick shook his head, not trusting anything he would be given, while Bruce explained they needed to head back to Gotham, something about having something to do that night. Jason acquiesced and showed them out, saying if they needed anything to call on him, he and Etrigan were only too happy to help after all.

Dick waited until he was in the car and Jason had disappeared back inside to ask "What the hell was that?"

"Be careful with that word." Bruce cautioned, and turned the car back onto the main street. "It can attract the wrong kind of attention. Especially here."

"You mean he was seriously magic?" Dick demanded, and Bruce just looked at him through the rear-view mirror. "But magic isn't real is it?"

"Magic is very real Dick. And whoever we are up against knows how to use it."

"Fantastic." Dick grumbled and choose not to argue. If Bruce believed it, or whoever they were up against believed in it too, that meant it would become a part of their investigation, skeptic or not.

Bruce just smiled and turned back onto the highway. They were the only car on the highway and off in the middle of nowhere. "I realize it's hard Dick," Bruce began again, "But sometimes the only explanation is the one right in front of you."

Dick humphed and Bruce returned his attention to the road. His phone pinged and he looked at the message. Barbara, asking him what kind of Fairfax he was talking about since the only one on google maps was at least a day's drive away from Gotham city. Dick turned around in his seat to take a picture of the town only to find it was gone.

There was nothing, just field after field of grasslands and a highway they now shared with a semi truck. The only roadside sign didn't list any Fairfax in upcoming towns, or towns near his location.

Dick groaned in annoyance and this time Bruce was the one chuckling at him. He was done with today, and it was apparently only 2:15 in the afternoon.

* * *

 **15:00**

 **Outside Wayne Enterprises Headquarters, Downtown Gotham city**

 **Police Commissioner James Gordon**

Even though the Feds were in town to fix their mistakes with the Wayne case, they had declined to provide protection to the Waynes. At least protection they were telling Gordon about anyways. And never ones to sit still, it had taken a thirty-minute negotiation with Mr. Wayne to allow for a police escort. Much like his son when things went down in Gotham city, he refused, and only agreed to the request as long as Gordon himself came along, probably to get Gordon to back down. He had not been happy when Gordon said deal.

Mr. Wayne had wanted to see his company, and so the squad car was driven by some rookie that had pissed off his commanding officer, you had to have done something to get assigned chauffeur duty, along with Gordon himself. There were a few more cars throughout the area, ensuring they were able to respond quickly in case of any funny business, costumed or otherwise.

The rookie pulled up to the front of the large building, able to stop and not getting honked at endlessly being virtue of being a marked police car. The skyscraper, which had been remodeled since Mr. and Mrs. Wayne had seen it last, inspired the usual oos and ahhs, this time by the two Waynes, and the rookie speed off to not be in the way of traffic. While critiquing and complimenting their son's architecture choices, Gordon was scanning the crowd around them, taking notice of a few undercover officers.

The crowd was made up of the usual white collar workers that dotted this part of town. Business suits, coffees and cellphones were the trademark of the people in this area. Wearing anything different was a sure sign of not belonging to the area, the sign of a stranger.

They were even more of a stranger when they wore an orange, Arkham Asylum jumpsuit, which his patrol car had also spotted and was speeding toward while Gordon drew his side arm and instructed the Waynes into the building and lock it behind them and tell everyone to take cover. Thankfully they didn't argue on this one.

Some heads at the Feds were sure to roll over on this one. Especially when Gordon finally got a good look at the figure, a big, bulky, bald guy covered in tick marks.

The sounds of sirens were not strangers to the people of Gotham, which is why most of them ignored the noise. It was only when the screams started from recognizing Zsasz along with Gordon yelling to clear the area, did a stampede to get inside or hide occur.

Zsasz for his part, instead of playing up the panic stayed very still, before charging towards the Wayne building. Famous for his monologues and flair for the dramatic, the character was eerily silent and seemed to only have one goal, break into the Wayne building. Gordon yelled at him to stop and, along with multiple other cops, threatened to fire.

There was no need, the figure fell when a gunshot went off. The shot had to come from above and not from a police standard issue, which Gordon knew meant either FBI or their mysterious sniper friend. Gordon didn't care who it was, all that mattered was they had an accounted person shooting in their direction with tons of civilians around.

Gordon called for everyone to take cover, which only incited more panic as people both indoors and out threw themselves behind trashcans, newsstands, anything that may provide a bit of cover. The entire street was still, until Gordon decided later to make a move. Cop lights were still flashing, traffic was quiet and no one dared make any noise least they become a target. Eventually his phone rang and the officer on the other line suggested an all clear, seeing as preliminary scans should an abandoned gun on top of a nearby building.

Gordon himself went over to the body, shooing away curious passerby and those who wanted a piece of the serial killer for whatever reason. There was surprisingly little blood on the sidewalk, and the figure that had terrorized Gotham lay face down. Gordon started barking orders at nearby standing police while also barking orders into his cellphone again, securing the crime scene and making sure no one got too close. The scene picked that moment to come back to life and people started running in as many directions as possible.

Gordon hadn't even known Zsasz was out, and according to the Arkham warden he finally got on the line, whom he had to argue with to check Zsasz's cell, Arkham hadn't either. He'd either gotten out and gone quietly, which was not Zsasz's style, or someone brought him out for a specific purpose.

Either way, Gordon didn't like it. Even though he privately was happy for the man's death, the idea that someone broke out of Arkham without anyone noticing was a scary prospect no matter how you looked at it. That meant anyone in Arkham could make it onto the streets undetected, and that was a thought Gordon did not like.

Gordon sighed, and realized he could no longer see the Waynes inside the building. He left a cop in charge of the crime scene and raced in after the two, only to find them hiding behind a secretary's desk with the rest of the front office workers, safe and sound.

* * *

 **18:20**

 **The Gotham City Plaza Hotel restaurant, Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

He'd listened to his father recount commissioner Gordon saving his parent's lives at least three times already today. Once when he made it back into the city, after making some excuse about taking Dick away from the excitement, he'd been told by his parents in person. Then he was there for the press conference the city threw where the Waynes thanked the Gotham city Police department, no word on the FBI, for their actions in taking down a notorious serial killer. After that there had been the exclusive interview with a television crew, where Bruce watched his parents thank the city of Gotham for their diligence and the police for taking care of the matter so quickly.

And now here it was again. Over the dinner table.

He'd loved going to the Plaza as a kid, they'd always given him a cookie when he stopped by, and as an adult he used it a lot as a base of operations in the city. Their meager security both horrified him and made him glad he could sneak out easily as Batman, and the hotel for their part was proud to be one of the place Mr. Wayne liked to patron.

He knew in his mind that the childhood memory was why his mother had insisted on going, and even though the manager offered him a cookie every time he came in, his mother had made a big show about how he still remembered and the place was just like when he was a kid. As if not a day had gone by.

A part of Bruce knew it was her way of trying to make up for missing so much of his childhood, another was upset like any son would be when his mother instead on doing things they had done when he was nine years old, and not a man of almost thirty. So he humored her, and waited patiently for a moment to escape, jump in the batsuit and examine Zsasz's body. Because that was what Bruce did when he was uncomfortable or had issues to work out, jumped in a batsuit and beat the crap out of people and solved crimes. Perfectly healthy coping mechanism.

Dick for his part was being good. He was eating the same food he always ate, some pasta dish that wasn't on the menu but the chef made for him anyways. The first time Dick had been to the Plaza had been recently after his parent's death and he asked for some food a person from the circus made. The chef had made it happen and made it just for him. Dick kept his head down, answering questions when he was spoken to or to add on a comment to seem like he was paying attention. He was still very tired, and Bruce couldn't blame him, even knowing he had played a part in keeping him awake.

The ride back had been question after question. Dick was still like a little kid sometimes, always wanting to know why. Sometimes as Robin the curiosity got him in trouble, but more often than not it was one of Dick's better characteristics. A good detective was curious about everything after all. Bruce had tried to answer all the questions he could, while having studied the occult and demonology, he was a bit rusty on the more obscure parts. He didn't know whether he had helped solidify Dick's understanding or confuse him more.

He made a mental note to bring Batgirl up to speed too, especially since Etrigan believed something dark was afoot. Zsasz escaping from Arkham without bloodshed and going quiet, not even killing anyone along the way, was either some kind of miracle or Zsasz was being controlled, and not by plant spores. He'd already launched an investigation into Arkham staff, looking for any crosses with anyone he could find. Playing the game of how many-degrees-of-separation-until-we-get-to-a-criminal was something that required some time and file crunching, so he'd left the computer to do its thing, zipping away inside the Batcave hidden away in Gotham city. There could be no matches found and he'd have to do things the old fashioned way.

The FBI file he'd asked Catwoman to look into for him contained no leads on his parents. No crosses with anyone or anything he could find in current databases that related to anyone connected to the sniper shootings. What lead the FBI did have was all about a specific branch of the Metropolis mob the cash had gone through, was nothing but a dead end with all the members dead for years now. He, much like the FBI, was back at square one, and this time Bruce was much more equipped to take them down. He had his parent's testimony, which he was also working on getting from the federal database, and would be able to continue farther once he had it.

Bruce had insisted, to both himself and Alfred, that even though this was his parents, the people he'd become Batman to avenge after all, he would be able to remain rational and treat the case like any other case. He wasn't too close to it at all. Being distant enough to be objective and detached was Batman's thing, and he was going to solve this case, avenge his parents and all those years lost, and live happily ever after. Right?

"Bruce are you even listening to your mother?" His father scolded him, and Bruce smiled sheepishly. Dick snickered and then his eyes returned back to his plate and his mother sighed at him. It was a long sigh, the kind mothers used to clearly illustrate she was upset with him.

"I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere. Can you please catch me up?" He tried to be as sweet as possible, but much like a lot of things he had grown out of, his charm for getting out of trouble was outdated. She didn't buy it.

"I was saying we should throw a party to celebrate our homecoming once the FBI get whatever they need out of the manor. You can bring your lady friend once she's feeling better too."

"And how is the FBI doing?" Bruce asked, trying to move the subject away from Selina. He'd stopped by briefly to see her, but as predicted she had been in a sour mood, the flowers were still in the room, but were situated out of her line of sight. Bruce wasn't sure how to take that or if he should even try stopping by again as Batman.

So she was still mad. And he still needed to explain to Dick and Barbara he hadn't gotten the chance to tell her. That would go over well.

"Nothing for you to worry about son. They're gathering information and then they will be off to cover a new lead." His father brushed him off, much like he had when Bruce had tried to help with things and was told to go away, Daddy was working. Bruce knew unless there was some new line of communication he didn't know about, the FBI was in the same square as he was. Square one, with just the testimony and the facts from twenty years ago. That made his being kept in the dark even more frustrating.

"So anyway," his mother pressed on, clearly eager to turn the conversation back to something lighter. "I took a photo of your girlfriend's dress to a custom seamstress and thought we could make her a new one since her old one got blood on it. She looked stunning in it, there was a very nice editorial in the society page about how wonderful she looked. Maybe we can go by her hospital room and bring it to her as a surprise." His mother continued on, completely ignoring Bruce's attempt to steer conversation away from the current topic. She was like a dog with a bone, and simply would not let it go.

This party was going to happen, whether Bruce liked it or not. Selina would come, whether Bruce asked her to or not, and his mother was going to play matchmaker, apparently whether he liked it or not.

"She's not really up to seeing visitors at the moment. And she's not my girlfriend." Bruce hoped it would put the matter to bed. He was wrong.

"Nonsense." His mother insisted. "You're photographed with her at nearly every public event you went to for the past year. That and you're the only one who has seen her in the hospital. You like her a lot and you will ask her to come."

Dick was intently focused on his meal, while his father looked very interested in the desert menu. So much for help on that front. He would really have to find out what Alfred said to them. And find out who had taught his mother to use google to look up her friends and her son.

"So how was Wayne Enterprises, did you see Lucius today?" Bruce chose to change the subject and his mother seemed upset by his refusal to discuss it, while his father was grateful to have some input and to be able to talk again. This was a battle he would fight another time.

"Oh yes, I remember when you were young he was just a junior level executive. He's made a lot of fine choices over the years, you picked a good one Bruce. Though I am rather surprised you fired Mr. Chambers, what was wrong with him?"

"You mean besides Falcone connections and the habit of burning down rainforests to get his way right?" Bruce asked, somewhat sarcastically and returned to his food.

It was his company now. Not theirs. It was he who had come up with the new direction Wayne Enterprises took, the new people friendly business model and rooted out corruption in its ranks. He had been the one who pushed for record-breaking profits and allowed for them to compete on a global scale. He was the one who had made Wayne Enterprises a top place to work. A part of him got angry when they referred to things the way it used to be, it had been his for so long. He'd improved it, made it better and there had been no mention of his accomplishments. All they wanted to talk about was the way things used to be and Selina Kyle, not the things Bruce Wayne had spent years doing. He'd rather have them back than all those things, no doubt, but it still bothered him they didn't mention any of the things he had done.

"Bruce, you're going to bring her the dress and you're going to talk to her." His mother insisted and Bruce had had enough. He couldn't do this right now.

"Excuse me," He said suddenly and got up, much to his parent's surprise. "I need to go feed Selina's cat." Without giving them a chance to respond, and ignoring the fact he was leaving Dick alone, Bruce did what Bruce did best and ran away from his emotional problems. Gotham City had a mysterious sniper who needed to be put down, and he had some other things he needed to take care of around the city, like find the FBI agent who was supposed to be watching his parents.

 **20:15**

 **Gotham City Morgue, Gotham City Police Headquarters**

 **Bruce**

"The bullet entered at the base of his skull here." The technician explained, pointing at a place on the chart, though for all the tech knew it could be anywhere seeing as he had never taken his eyes of Batman. He had to be no older than 25, and looked like he was fresh out of med school, stopping to explain terms Batman and Gordon already knew. Bruce didn't have the heart to stop him, it would scare the poor thing more. The last thing the night needed was a frightened medical examiner.

"The interesting thing about this one" The tech continued, now more excited, "Was even though the bullet should have exploded, it didn't." He seemed rather pleased to himself and Batman gave him a nod, which seemed to soothe his nerves a bit. He went from hyperactive hamster, to slightly less hyperactive squirrel.

"Were there any markings?" And the tech nodded like a bobble head. Gordon had met him on the roof, saying they had a lead on the sniper, which was the most positive thing he had heard all day. He'd also suggested Batman come down and look himself to find out what to make of it. Gordon had never done that before, and the possibility intrigued him.

"There were! We have a match to a type of gun, a high tech sniper rifle made in former Soviet States and the bullets had a little logo!" The tech continued enthusiastically, then dampened a little. "We ran the mark through ViCAP, Interpol, sent it off to some Feds to run things through, and it came up clean. This little insignia has never been found on any evidence in the system. Until now.

"I also think you'll be pleased to know we found the sniper, or what we think is him. There's no fingerprints, no dental records, and no identifying markings, other than the lack of prints and teeth. He was found in the stairwell near where the rifle had been set up. We're going to run his DNA through the system and see if we can find anything."

Batman somehow doubted they would find anything, while internally he also sank a little. Just what he needed, a new villain in town to deal with or someone who knew how to cover their tracks. For once, couldn't he get only one crisis at a time?

"He was probably killed to throw us off whoever he belongs to or who hired him." The Tech added, trying to be helpful. While Bataman always liked seeing people go into law enforcement to help make a difference, their enthusiasm could be nauseating at times. For someone who was famous for silence and brooding, continued commentary was starting to grate on his nerves.

"Jared, can you please show Batman the symbol on the bullet?" Gordon prodded a little and the tech sprang to life again, almost skipping over to the computer to put the mark up on a projector screen.

"Sorry Mr. Batman sir." He squeaked then entered, then had to re-enter the password into the machine. They waited very anti-climatically for the image to pop up and Batman almost gasped when he saw the symbol come up. He knew exactly who it belonged to, and knew exactly who was in town. The thought did not sit well with him. Not at all.

"Take your men off investigating the sniper case. Now." He told Gordon.

"You recognize it?" Gordon asked, puzzled while the tech seemed to squeak with excitement again.

"I do." Batman stated, "I don't want any police getting caught in the crossfire."

Gordon started to mumble off how he couldn't call off an active sniper investigation but would try to limit it as much as possible to only people with extreme training and skill. Batman was only half listening as Gordon went on about the official police procedure for such events, and that there was another federal task force being sent to the city, this time to look for a possible terror connection.

While they weren't wrong, it still bothered Batman. This wasn't Ra's thing, not at all. He was either trying to get Batman's attention, which he normally did by showing up at the manor, or had some new genocidal plot that involved killing off Gotham's worst.

Either way, Batman would have to track the man down and pay him a visit, something Bruce wasn't a fan of doing. They weren't on great terms, especially since the last time they had crossed paths Ra's had demanded he give up everything to be his heir.

"I'll be out of town for a few days to deal with the source. Nightwing will cover me." Batman announced, waiting only for a slight pause in Gordon's monologue to speak.

"You have a lead?" The tech asked, and Gordon rolled his eyes. Of course he had a lead. He was Batman.

Batman didn't answer him because he had already made his way out of the room. He had to arrange flight plans, tell Nightwing and Batgirl the change of plans, check in on Selina and make sure her cat was fed. All the while pretending everything was fine and making sure his parents didn't get suspicious and that the FBI didn't do anything without him. Nothing complicated right?

* * *

 **21:30**

 **Gotham Mercy, Gotham City**

 **Dick**

Bruce had run out of town much like he'd run out of the restaurant. Not really explaining what he was doing except that he had to go bother Ra's about something, oh and Selina still didn't know their identity. He'd left them a checklist, an assigned list of chores, and a detail list of contingency plans, including things like Joker attacks, alien invasions or Lex Luthor trying to break into his factory again.

Bruce's parents had been rather upset he just vanished, even more upset when they learned their son had not just run out on them in a restaurant, but that he was currently going somewhere he'd listed as 'TBA' and hadn't told them. Dick tried explaining that was just the way he was, and when things got too personal he ran away from dealing with them instead of facing them head on. Dick also tried to explain that Selina was in love with Batman, not Bruce, and tried to explain his mother was only hurting his feelings.

Of course, it was up to Dick to deal with the emotional fallout. For someone who was so smart Bruce sure could be stupid with people sometimes. Alfred had said the same, and pacified, they returned to the manor while Dick made his way back to the hotel. Which he promptly snuck out of and met up with Barbara to start the night.

He'd been amused they both had assigned reading, like vigilantism was school, and was fielding Batgirl's questions about the subject material as they made their way to the hospital.

"Are you sure it was a demon?" She asked for about the fifth time in a row.

"Yes he was. The laugh was creepier than anything that's come out of Joker too."

"Are you sure this isn't you getting me back for the time I got you in trouble and you had to wash the Batmobile?"

"Positive. His last name was Blood, Batgirl. Who has that name unless you're a demon or some teen-ager trying to be edgy?"

The first item on their list was to visit Selina, though what they were supposed to do neither Nightwing or Batgirl knew. Even though Bruce had gone into a large amount of detail on other things, like how exactly to feed the cat, he'd left it up to them what they were supposed to do on their visit.

Nightwing and Batgirl had never understood Bruce's aversion to doors. It was like he thought windows, vent shafts and similar things were superior points of entry. Bruce would scale the side of the building and then pop in the hospital room via window to say hello. Batgirl and Nightwing used the front entrance. It was less theatrical sure, but it was easier.

No one really bothered them walking around the hospital until they got to her floor. It was a lot like being the more criminal elements of Gotham, no one looked at you, and no one saw anything until it became in their best interest to have seen something.

Batgirl, never one for waiting and preferring the blunt approach, passed by the GCPD officer, who nodded at the pair, and entered in the hospital room.

"Great, he sends the kids in to try and make me feel bad." A voice grumbled, and Dick looked over at Selina. He'd never seen her look so vulnerable before, and it made her twice as dangerous. Dick knew people who felt cornered either gave in easily, or fought twice as hard. Selina was the second kind.

"Well you did really hurt his feelings." Batgirl pointed out, and then noticed the flowers on the side of the room, tucked away behind a machine. "Let me guess, you're like Ivy and hate the fact he brought you dead plants?"

"Hardly."

"Well what did happen? You chased him out of town."

"I thought the sniper did that." Catwoman snapped, almost sounding miffed he didn't even bother saying good-bye in person.

"Well," Dick started, trying to rescue the situation so Batgirl didn't get clawed once Catwoman got more mobile, "He did put checking in with you at the top of our to-do list."

Selina rolled her eyes again. "I'm so touched. The kid who couldn't even stop me from getting stabbed gets to be my attack dog."

Batgirl started a response but Dick wasn't listening. How dare she? He'd done all that he could have done and here she was, being bitter in a hospital bed and attacking him for it.

"You know what Catwoman?" Nightwing hissed, angry at her blaming him for the previous event, angry they had to stop here because Bruce couldn't deal with feelings like a grown-ass adult, angry dealing with fallout was always his job. "You and I both know that there was nothing more I could have done to fix it and Batgirl was looking for goons outside and Batman was being busy, so I'm sorry you got stabbed but it's not my fault."

"Of course he was. He can be a hero for everyone else but not for me."

Dick knew she was upset about being injured, getting stabbed in the stomach was no easy thing to get over. Things had to get stitched back up properly which took time to heal, eating was hard and it required a lot of bed rest. Recovery also sucked since you needed your core muscles, the ones that had taken the brunt of the attack, for just about every kind of movement.

"He was literally in the room with you Selina. He couldn't get out in time and he still did what he could." Batgirl snapped before realizing what she said, then muttering about how she was stuck to logs forever. Catwoman's green eyes narrowed and then locked in on Nightwing.

"Explain." She demanded and Nightwing found himself freezing up again.

"Batgirl, shut up." Nightwing ordered "He'll never let us do anything ever again if you don't shut up."

"So he was at the gala event that night?" Selina prodded trying to get more information out of them once she already had a tiny piece. Dick knew they were screwed, she was never going to let it go now. Selina may not have the title of World's Greatest Detective, but she was through and tracked things down with a ferocity.

Neither of them answered her, which only made her angrier.

"One of you is going to explain, or I'm going to feed you to an endangered large cat." She threatened, and while Dick had no problem believing her, he knew Bruce wouldn't let that happen. He might let her kidnap them, take them to her cat preserve and then let her dangle the two of them over a cage, but wouldn't let them get eaten. Probably.

"He should be the one to tell you." Dick muttered, only to be met with a glare. "He was going to but you bit his head off the other night."

"Now who's the blabbermouth Nightwing?" Babs hissed, determined that if she was going to get in trouble over this, Dick was going to get in an equal amount of trouble with her.

Dick sighed. This was the exact opposite of productive and Bruce would never let it go. He still held the time Dick's voice cracked in front of Penguin, or when he got himself kidnapped by Ra's al Ghul, over Dick's head. That was of course provided Batman didn't go nuclear on the two of them for telling Selina things they weren't supposed to.

"He was?" Selina asked, softer and all the fight gone. Dick felt a tiny bit bad, and he could sense some of her guilt. Dick still wasn't sure what had gone down yesterday, and probably never would, but it had been enough to cause Batman to decide a certain gang had run around Gotham long enough and that he was taking them all down. Now. Not very many things inspired that level of rage towards criminals, which meant he had been really hurt.

"Yeah, he was." Dick answered, and Batgirl nodded, deciding she wasn't going to say anymore so she didn't get in trouble when Batman got back. Or at least didn't get in as much trouble.

* * *

Hi friends, please drop a review if you have anything to say. This took a while to finish because finals craziness but it's a lot longer than usual, so hopefully that makes the delay a bit more okay?


	8. Chapter 8

**21:00 Local Time**

 **Somewhere along the northern border of Egypt and Libya**

 **Bruce**

For someone who prided himself on making the CIA's list of terror groups, Interpol, what was formerly the KGB, and other such organizations around the globe, Ra's was not very hard to track down. It required a lot of effort sure, getting into a country in turmoil after a dictatorship fell, finding horses to ride into the desert on, not getting killed by anyone who thought they smelled weakness. The usual. But if any of the world's governments wanted to go after him, it would not be hard to do. Which was by design. Some of the less moral government heads and leaders would ask Ra's to make someone "disappear".

He had made this journey twice before, though each of those times it had been into the mountains. The Himalaya compound was the summer home and training base. Now, nearing fall, Ra's had transitioned to a different climate, choosing to go farther south and into a flatter, warmer area. Must be nearing a trip to the pit.

Bruce's motives had been completely different back then. Back then he was focused on finding a teacher, the deadliest of all, to train him in the ways of combat so he would know how to take even the most dangerous of men down. The killing people to save the planet thing hadn't really bothered Bruce in the beginning. Vengeance had clouded his judgement and his own foolish thought that Ra's beliefs would not extend beyond beliefs. It was part of the reason why when himself and Ra's went their separate ways, it was not a peaceful parting.

Nor had it been with his daughter Talia. When he met her, Bruce had thought all his pain may go away. Something with her clicked, she understood what pain was as well as loss. She made him happy, forget about the blood and violence that had shaped his life and made him believe in happiness, in what was real and in front of him. For the first time in a long time, almost a decade in fact, she had made Bruce believe in happy endings and that he could have one.

That had all vanished when she tried to get him to kill a man to prove to her father he was worthy of leading Ra's forces. At the end of the day, she had wanted him to be someone he wasn't, and as much as Bruce wanted to, he didn't think he could be that person for her.

He'd never really spoken to her since. She sometimes fell out with her father, in which case Bruce made sure she had living arrangements and food, and she eventually returned to her father. The hope that she would break free and away from his influence diminished each time until he was forced to confront his own truth. Talia would never be the person he wanted her to be either, and every time their paths crossed he was forced to acknowledge that. There had been the time Dick was kidnapped and he was supposed to rescue her and Dick. That had been another attempt to turn him into Ra's heir, and into a person he did not want to be. They both wanted the other to be someone they weren't, and neither of them were ever going to compromise or could change. They were fundamentally different people.

Bruce would never admit it to anyone, but sometimes even in the dark he questioned his desire to not kill. It certainly didn't stem from a belief that everyone could be rehabilitated; he knew more than anyone the suffering humans could inflict on one another again and again. He also knew how to kill many different ways and how to do it without leaving a mark, how to do it with a gun on a rooftop a large distance away, and even with a spoon. It was a moral principle sure, and what separated the dark from the light. But he still sometimes wondered if just a tinge of gray would have been okay. The thought kept him up at night, remembering all the people he had failed to save from evil by no turning to the dark himself. News of Talia and thoughts of her always brought that mindset up, and the fear he was doing more harm to others than good by standing by a moral principle.

The compound from a distance seemed like nothing special. A small village, a flyover village, one where nothing interesting happened and the raging governments and groups in the region seemed to leave untouched. In reality it was one of the largest Demon's Head compounds in the world, and groups in the surrounding areas quickly learned to not mess with them. They paid taxes to whoever was in charge, whether legitimately recognized government or not, and killed anyone who dared disagree.

It was eerie approaching the village, as usually there would be a few scouts running around by now in the area. Ra's was many things, and a brilliant tactician was one of them. He would not have allowed anyone to get this close without him knowing, which meant Ra's wanted Bruce to come to him. Bruce didn't like where that thought process took him. Ra's wanting something from Batman, Brue Wayne or both was never a good thing for anyone but Ra's. Ra's was only out for Ra's, and Talia too when it suited him. Bruce half wondered if the attacks had only been an invitation to get him to come. If so he was deviating from his usual script, and the last thing Bruce liked was surprises or deviations from pattern.

No one was guarding the front gate either. It didn't seem right, there were usually at least two visible guards, four not visible to a person riding up or on foot. Bruce knocked anyways, and upon receiving no response, left the horses there and moved on into the city. Bruce figured no response was as good as an invitation.

He drew a few weapons from his belt before moving in, not liking the feeling he was getting. The village was dark, quiet. The only light emitted from the only multi-story structure in town, the compound itself. He felt like the only thing alive or the only thing there. Quick scans of nearby huts showed them to be empty, not a single person inside.

Bruce thought briefly of the possibility of Ra's being overrun, but quickly dismissed it. He would know if something had happened to this village, he kept an alert on it and satellite feed he had seen from the plane showed them all functioning normally. As normal as anyone could get for a group of assassins anyway. No, there was something else going on, which made him tense up more than usual.

There was no need to keep looking for people, for as soon as he got close enough to the front door of the building it opened its door, briefly blinding him. He was ushered inside quickly, for once without a fight, and was practically pushed all the way to the inner sanctum of the building. It seemed he had been expected. Never a good sign with Ra's al Ghul.

"Detective." Al Ghul mummered, barely loud enough for Bruce to hear. "Fortune favors us. I was about to seek out a meeting with you." He didn't look intimidating in person, which was what caused many to underestimate him. Behind the green eyes was just the right amount of crazy to not care about life, and the years of training taught him more than any mortal human could hope to learn in a life-time.

"Cut the crap Ra's." Bruce snapped, in no mood to entertain the mystical demon, wipe earth of bad humans spiel. Barbra had once asked what would happen if Ra's al Ghul and Poison Ivy teamed up and Bruce didn't want to think about it. There was a contingency plan of course, but that didn't mean he enjoyed the idea. "Why are you killing in Gotham?"

"Killing?" Ra's eyebrows shot up, giving him a face that would have been found comical if the situation wasn't so serious. "I am not active in Gotham. You made it very clear last time we spoke the consequences of doing so."

"Then why was this fished out of a body that got shot?" Bruce hissed, almost throwing the bullet he had borrowed from the evidence locker.

Ra's nostrils flared and anger spread across his face. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me where my Daughter is Detective? That's why you are here isn't it? To make your point in person?"

Bruce had not been expecting that. "Talia is missing?" he was genuinely worried, although more than a little hesitant to take Ra's at his word. The last time he had was not a pleasant memory for either man. Still, even though that had been a long time ago, Bruce would always care for her and look out for her. He may not be in love with her any longer, but he would still be upset if something happened to her.

"That's not why you're here?" Ra's was confused and chose to farther explain what happened and his thought process. For once he did it without the metaphors and ranting about humans. "Three weeks ago in India, Talia was attacked by thugs. Her guards tried their best but had been overrun by sheer numbers. They had killed many attackers protecting her, but eventually they succumbed to their injuries. Talia was taken and a note was all we found, with a bat drawn on it." Ra's eyes narrowed and his scowl deepened. "You didn't take her did you?"

"Killing isn't my thing Ra's. You should know that better than anyone" Bruce sternly reminded him, and digested all the information. Someone was playing with Ra's, just like they were playing with Bruce it seemed. All the more worrying. Playing with Ra's was a very deadly game if you didn't know what you were doing. "How did they get your personalized bullets?"

"All my personal guards carry them, as well as all elite assassins. All guards and assassins are accounted for, even the dead ones. All weapons too. They must have been taken off the bodies, the bodies didn't have any on them and we guessed they had been used up in the fight. With that large of a body count, we assumed we did not need to account for them. That will be rectified."

"What about the gun? The shots were both taken over a hundred yards away, with the same type of rifle your men prefer to use and requiring the skill your men have." Circumstantial evidence sure, but it was the only thing he had on the mysterious snipers.

"I am not the only one in the world that uses that specific weapon detective or who can shoot off a roof and hit something." Ra's snapped back, upset at the accusation he would do such a thing.

"No, but seeing as they are incredibly hard to get a hold of and need connections to get to, I thought you would be a good place to start."

"Well I'm just as in the dark as you it seems, for once." Ra's noted, and Bruce couldn't help but share the same dejected feeling. He had hoped Ra's had all the answers, he would beat the crap out of him, and then go back home. Nothing was ever easy.

"Ra's, if one of your assassins failed, like a bullet wasn't prepped properly and therefore did not explode, what would you do with the body?"

"There would be no body to be found. You know the price of failure Detective, why do you need it repeated?"

"Because the police did find one. No positive DNA in the system on any fronts, no dental records and no hand or thumbprints to speak of. Whoever did it did it methodical and knew exactly where to cut. More proof it isn't you." Bruce hoped the last part would help swing Ra's over a bit, make him more cooperative. It did. The idea that someone was trying to imitate him also seemed to flatter Ra's.

"What do you think I am, some amateur?" Ra's hissed. "The style sounds Eastern European. Maybe Russian. Reminds me of one particular group, that operated in East Russia. In addition to being a gang, they had some hitmen that were very good at what they did, and cleaned up messes in a similar style."

"Where can I find them?"

"You can't. They were absorbed by a larger Russian group who later put more operations overseas. Their largest branch was Metropolis until it failed. The FBI took down their leader and many other top men, and they splintered into smaller, less threatening factions following the takedown."

Bruce pulled out the file containing the Mob lead on the money in Metropolis. "This wouldn't happen to be any of them would it?" He hoped a little bit, maybe just a bit too much that if he couldn't get a lead on the sniper case, he could on his own parents. Especially since all the shots had occurred around his parents.

Ra's scanned the files, flipping through the pages about his parent's disappearance and how the money went through and was eventually lost. "Probably is related, everything went through them after a while. But this doesn't help if they are already dead or have been jailed for years with no outside contacts."

"It's all we have Ra's." Bruce reminded him and Ra's rounded on him, causing him to take a step back and reach for a throwing star.

"No Detective, we have much more!" Ra's roared "This enemy knows about our connection and about your true self. That puts us in a much better position. Think about it. Be your enemy like I taught you! Your enemy knows I am your greatest enemy, so he makes you track me down. He ensures you find me by taking Talia, and the only way to get us to team up is by uniting us through my daughter. They want us together, and are playing with both of us."

As much as Bruce didn't want to face the idea, Ra's was right. There was no way this could be a coincidence, and the murders happening so close to people Bruce Wayne, not Batman, cared about? Incredibly unlikely, and it would be foolish to ignore the narration.

But it didn't make sense. Bruce had covered his tracks and plugged any leaks well, and he knew there was no criminal in Arkham who could have possibly pulled something of this scale off, let alone who knew what the Demon's Head even was. This was someone new, and someone who already had a much better footing then he did.

At the end of the day, what seemed to make sense for usual cases didn't really matter. What mattered were the facts and how they fit together, and the only way any of these facts fit together was with Bruce Wayne, and his parents in the picture along with knowledge about Ra's al Ghul, and someone who knew he was a very real threat and not a whisper of the superstitious.

"You really think working together is what this enemy wants?"

"What choice do we have Detective? It seemed their intial intent was to have us at each other's throats, why else leave a bat symbol behind, but you don't kill and you do not appear to have changed your resolve to not do so." Ra's reasoned and Bruce sighed. He was right of course and it seemed to make logical sense, and Bruce hated it. Any enemy of his would sic his most deadly and well-armed threat against him first and keep other contingency plans in place. By that as it may, he did not want to work with Ra's, who would change his tune as soon as it became for Ra's own benefit.

"He may have a back-up plan in case we decide to partner up instead of fight. This will not be easy and requires complete trust. From both of us."

"You always were my favorite student, and you are still my heir like it or not." Ra's remarked as though that settled the matter on his end completely then stuck out his hand. "So in the interest of our respective families, do we have a partnership?"

Bruce didn't even hesitate to respond with a handshake of his own. "We do." What choice did he have?

* * *

 **10:00**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Alfred**

Mr. and Mrs. Wayne were not taking their son's departure well and he had not even been gone more than two days now. Adding on Federal Agents now sticking to them like glue after the Zsasz incident, they were more than very flustered. Alfred also privately suspected the strength they had mustered to appear normal and fine to the world upon their return was diminishing, and the true scars would begin to show soon.

They were in the process of finding a doctor, but finding a good therapist was hard enough. Finding one who was not looking to get rich off their case, along with making sure their interest was in assisting the Waynes, not their own. On top of that selection process, the FBI, determined to be extra cautious in this one, demanded they be investigated and subjected to a full background check before being allowed near the Waynes. It wasn't the FBI's decision to make, but the Waynes would probably end up taking their suggestions anyways.

Dick was still moping around, having returned to school only to get engulfed by reporters. It did not help his situation at all, and apparently an argument had occurred between him and Barbara, as Barbra had called the manor asking if "Dick was ready to knock off the Bruce impression, pull the stick out of his ass, and apologize." Alfred had explained he would pass on the message and instruct him to call her. Based off of Dick's reaction and angry muttering, there had been no calls back.

Mrs. Wayne was putting on extra strain on herself ever since she got it in her head that a large society party was the thing that would solidify that she was fine and normal. She had not let Alfred have any part in it, insisting she could and would do it herself. In the past Alfred had simply compiled options like for the menu and decorations after doing research for her, let her pick and then made all the arrangements for them. She was calling herself, trying to organize herself, send out all the invitations and she was getting rather frazzled over it.

"May I make you a cup of tea Mrs. Wayne?" Alfred asked, and she nodded. She didn't return to her business right away, and Alfred sensed she wanted to talk, one of those intuition things. He was right.

"This was supposed to be different." She explained, talking out loud. "Things were supposed to go different with Bruce, Thomas wouldn't be so distant anymore, this was supposed to get better after someone found us." She looked over at Alfred, as if he held all the answers to her problems. "Why aren't things better?"

"Well Mam'," Alfred started, "Bruce is not upset at you. He's just like the little boy he used to be in a lot of ways. He still doesn't like his picture taken, won't eat cauliflower, and runs away to avoid dealing things instead of facing them head on. He grew up into a fine young man." Not that Akfred was trying to brag about his parenting skills, but of all the different sons she could have come back, the one who dressed up in what was essentially a Halloween costume and beat people up was not the best case scenario but was far from the worst by a long shot.

"I still messed up. I shouldn't have pushed so hard, upset him about Selina. I thought I was going to be able to force things back the way they were but I can't. Thomas isn't himself, he hasn't been for a long time. And my son has a son, and I've missed out on both of them growing up and can't say any of the right things." She started to cry, quiet at first, and then building into heaving sobs. "Alfred what do I do?"

"Hush hush now Mam', it's alright." Alfred said awkwardly, trying to comfort the woman who had fallen to pieces. "Bruce and Dick are very happy for your return, even if they aren't good at showing it. I am also very sure Master Thomas, no matter how he is now, still loves you and is going to recover, just like you are. What matters is you got here from wherever you were".

It didn't seem to help. She kept sobbing so Alfred tried a different approach. "Once Bruce gets back, you should all sit down and have some bonding time. You and Thomas should go on a date night. Be together."

"But Bruce didn't want to. We had to drag him out." The wailing kept going and Alfred inwardly sighed. How did he tell her it was because her son dressed up like a Bat and was trying to solve the mystery of their disappearance as well as an active shooter case. How did one explain that and make her realize it wasn't her fault?

"Bruce is still very much an introvert and workaholic. After you were, gone, he retreated inwardly. He didn't talk to anyone he didn't have to for months, and even after that he only rarely spoke or engaged in conversation. He got much better after he got much more involved with Wayne Enterprises and publicly with the Wayne Foundation. He still prefers to not go out much.

"Dick was raised by Bruce and myself best we could. He'd had a pretty normal childhood in the circus, well you know as normal as a travelling circus gets, and then had to deal with his parent's death and adjusting to a new life where he didn't know anyone. He took up practical jokes, and being as loud and laughing as he could to ease the ache.

"We all want you here very much and am glad you are back. We're just a little dysfunctional and bad at communication." That got a laugh out of the tears, as far as childhoods went, her own had been full of dysfunction. Mrs. Wayne focused on getting herself together, and Alfred could see her physically working to regain her composure. Deep breathes, straight posture, and a few long blinks.

"Thank you Alfred and thank you for being there when I couldn't." She wiped away the last of her tears and smiled a small smile that didn't quite make it to her eyes. "I think I'll take that tea now."

"Of course mam'." Alfred replied, dutifully as always. He hoped he had at least helped a small amount, or at the very least not made things worse.

He'd have to have a long talk with Bruce once he got back. Alfred knew it wasn't as simple as a temper tantrum by running away, it was all Batman business, and with Ra's, Bruce Wayne dropped everything and Batman took on being around full time. It seemed Bruce needed a gentle reminder to take more care of the people whose loss had caused him to become Batman in the first place.

* * *

 **3:00**

 **Gotham Mercy, Gotham City**

 **Selina**

Well this had sucked. It had been a few days since her little blow-up at Batman, and about twenty-four hours since boy and girl wonder had made her feel like shit for it. Not that she hadn't already felt bad.

She'd gotten a few visitors, some society friends and fellow organizers. No one special she particularly wanted to see. Some of her better friends would be arrested on sight in the hospital, some like Harvey had gotten shot, and the others weren't around. Pam had sent her a nice little cactus, sending her condolences on her injury along with idiot proof instructions on how to take care of a cactus. There went Selina's excuse for taking care of her greenery when Pam went into Arkham.

A sudden urgent matter regarding a branch of Wayne Enterprises overseas had suddenly come up, and Bruce had run off to deal with it. He'd left her a note, saying he was sorry but it was an urgent matter and that he hoped she understood. He'd also told her he would make it up to her, in however she wanted.

She's assured him over the phone it was okay, and Dick and Barbra, who seemed to be on the rocks seeing as they had visited at separate times, both stopped by to say hello, and re-assure her that her cat was alive and well. Dick had tried to sneak her in to see Selina but had gotten caught by the security guard and had to return her to Selina's apartment. Selina thought it was hilarious, especially since he'd picked one of her large handbags to try and sneak it in.

She still felt lonely and the one person she really wanted to see was a lot harder to call. He hadn't made any kind of appearance lately, and based off what she saw on the news, he was keeping a low profile. She wasn't sure if it was him keeping a low profile from everyone, like Nightwing said, or avoiding her specifically. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, especially since she seemed to have hurt his feelings a great deal.

Her body was on the mend even if Selina was still struggling emotionally. Walking no longer made her want to throw up, which only increased pain. She was able to not gag every time she tried to drink something. It would be a long recovery but her progress, according to her Doctor Evans, was moving along at a higher than average rate. Physical therapy was something she threw herself into, and her PT had said more than once he wished all patients had her enthusiasm.

Selina had also been left alone by the news, who thankfully had the matter of Zsasz to focus on and that made her, well yesterday's news. They were far too abuzz with a serial killer targeting the newly resurfaced Waynes to pay any attention to her.

She was distracted by a knock on the door, and then someone opening it. Nurses normally never knocked, they just came right on. The police officer outside her door had vanished due to some task force pulling all forces to look for the sniper.

"Is this really necessary Detective?" A deep voice, a man's, asked and she was surprised when Bruce answered yes. How did he get in here at this time of night? Who was the other guy, who looked like a villain you might encounter in one of Dick's video games that was set in the Middle Ages. Why did he call Bruce, Bruce who lost in Clue to her, Detective?

The thing that really surprised her was Bruce, holding a bouquet of flowers that matched the ones she had put back in view. He looked a lot more nervous than she had ever seen him, more than the time he had to give some opening speech and more than the time he had tried to throw Dick a birthday party.

"How?" She wondered out loud, looking at the two sets of flowers back and forth.

"I think you know." Bruce answered and the man beside him just sighed.

"Oh hurry up Detective, I have a hotel room waiting and I'm getting old. Hospitalized women met Batman. Batman meet- what's your name dear?"

"Catwoman." She answered automatically "Will you give us a moment please Mr?"

"Ra's al Ghul. Leader and founder of the Demon's Head, the most elite assassins and fighting forces in the world." The man's voice swelled up with pride and he would have clearly gone on for much longer if Bruce hadn't reminded him about that minute.

He came and sat next to her, his face half-hidden by flowers. The part she could see still seemed very nervous, as well he should be. All this time, he had known, and not told her? He'd been at her side all along, and she hadn't even known. She'd noticed similarities before, but after hearing Gordon talk about Bruce and Batman in the same room she just thought it a coincidence.

"Go put the flowers next to the others please." She asked sweetly and once he sat down again she slapped him clean across the face.

"I deserve that." He admitted, and she nodded. If moving still didn't hurt she would have given him more than the scars across his chest to know her by.

"What the hell is wrong with you? No, I don't even want to know the answer to that. Why didn't you tell me sooner? Did you not realize I was completely in love with you or something? Were you blind? You could have fixed so many things and-" she trailed off, the realization she'd said she loved him out loud. Ignoring that little part of her brain that nagged at her for it, she pressed on. "What about Robin, I mean Nightwing? You let a kid be Robin? Child services should be called on your ass you jerk. How could you? I suppose you'll tell me Alfred was in on it the whole time to and all those times I called you at night and he said you were busy, you were you patrolling your city wasn't it? All those times you left me handcuffed to something was you being funny wasn't it? You figuring out who I was and helping me without breaking the law was you too all along and my best fucking friend. I bet too that-"

"Selina stop. Please understand." She still glared at him and still wanted to throw an object at his head, preferably large but any size would do for the time being but she stopped, waiting to hear what he had to say for himself. "I wanted to tell you. But you got mad and I couldn't. Besides what if I lost you, you love Batman, and Bruce Wayne is a part of Batman and I didn't know how you would take it or if it would mess everything up and I didn't want to do that. Plus, It's not just my identity to give away, it's Dick's and Bab's." He stopped and looked sad. Damn him. She knew it was rational, and she was rational to be mad but damn if it didn't feel like joy and hurt all at the same time.

"Well, we know how Catwoman and Batman feel about each other. But Selina and Bruce, that's a mystery. I suppose we'll never know if you never ask me out on an official date." He flushed and she smiled. Point Selina. There would be a lot more to work out, but they could do that over dinner. She knew how Batman had felt about her, the playing, the games, the chasing. Dick had been telling her for ages Bruce had a thing for her, she'd just brushed him off.

She didn't feel as angry anymore, more relieved that he didn't seem mad at her for being angry. She never could really stay mad at Batman, Bruce, for long anyways. Besides, everything he did made logical sense and of all times he could have told her without weapons within her reach was a good time. Damn him.

"Selina," he started, quieter than usual. "Would you like to go get dinner with me some time?"

"I can't hear you." She sing-songed and made him blush again.

"Selina, can I ask you out on an official date please?" He was still a little red and got the words out as fast as possible, as though he would lose them if he didn't use them. She giggled a little until she remembered how much it hurt.

Demon Head picked that moment to pop back in. "Detective, hurry. Now. It's been more than several minutes and I require sleep at once to be at my most powerful to attack this imposter masquerading as one of my men."

"We'll figure it out once you get released." Bruce promised her and turned to leave, waving good-bye and smiling as he did. She didn't stop him, knowing him he would be in first thing tomorrow morning to explain everything to her. Because that was what Bruce did, explain things and give presentations. She knew, if it was socially acceptable to bring a whiteboard with you places, he'd bring one and use it when talking to people. He was excellent at speaking at people, but skills like asking girls out, they needed work. A lot of work.

* * *

As always, let me know if you feel something is out of place or needs fixing, or just to say hi. Thanks for reading.


	9. Chapter 9

**13:00**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham city**

 **Selina**

The entire morning had been awkward to say the least. Right when visiting hours began he showed up, newspaper in hand, and made himself a fixture in hospital room. The giggly mood that had happened last night was gone, as were some of the more serious pain meds in her system, and she had varied back and forth between glaring at him and making rude faces and hand gestures at him. She still had nothing to throw at him and would only have to content herself with thoughts of how she would rob his house and using her claws to rip up that awful painting of dogs that hung near the library. That was just for the cage thing, her brain was busily plotting somewhere in her subconscious how to get back at him for the Batman thing.

For years he had known. It was one thing to not tell a criminal rogue, but once she went on a straighter path he still had left her in the dark. Dick got to know who she was, as well as Alfred who of course seemed to know everything. It wasn't like she had been new to the straighter path either, she'd been on it for over a year now. She still stole, broke in places of courses, but did it for ethical reasons or to recover work, not just pure personal gain. A modern day Robin hood, him of all people should understand the drive to help the world around them. She had proven herself over and over again, and he hadn't believed her until now it seemed.

She was in a very dark mood all morning and resisted all attempts Bruce made at conversation. Inside she was dying with curiosity to know who the "Great and Mighty Demon's Head" was and where Bruce had found him. She still wasn't completely sure he was real; given that he was so out there. Also, who spoke like that this century? Really?

It had been her morning of discharge and she had decided not even being mad at Bruce would stop her from being happy about it. Of course, it came with drawbacks she had not anticipated. Like the one where Bruce told her doctor she would be going to stay with him so he could keep an eye on her. As they sat around and talked about Dr. Wayne being back, and to say that so and so from some floor along with Nurse such and such wished him well, Selina had to practically clench around the handles of the stupid wheelchair they were making her use to keep herself from launching herself at them.

Bruce had cutely already thought of everything. Damn him, He told her without being prompted that he had stopped by her apartment and already picked up her cat Isis, along with her special cat food as well as made copies of the cat's medical records should the need arise. She was placed into one of the many rooms in Wayne Manor, though it was one that Alfred had prepared specially for her. Whatever the hell that meant. He'd also gone by and made sure all of her things, costumed and not, had been brought over so she could have easy access during her stay and to make sure in the event someone did break in her apartment, they would have nothing to find. Oh and he'd already gone through and paid all her bills so she didn't have to worry about them, and he paid in advance the one for her sister's care.

What a thoughtful Batty Asshole he was.

He had decided to act like he wasn't being ignored, and was being cheerful in the way that can only be described as annoying. It's not like she wasn't grateful or anything, she was, she just still felt hurt he didn't feel like he could tell her for so long. It was like being in a group of friends and the only one not knowing the inside joke, hurtful, and even once it was explained it didn't take the sting out of the non-inclusion.

The gates in front of Wayne Manor felt different now, she had always associated the place with calm and now that was ruined. As Bruce drove into the garage she noticed a multitude of cars parked in the long driveway, mostly mid-range sedans with the exception of a bright yellow VW bug, she brooded on it. She thought she had known all the secrets the house had to offer her, it was unsettling to think there were aspects she did not see. Like where was the Batmobile?

Alfred had rushed out as soon as he heard the door open. He seemed concerned, and a little wobbly on his feet. Which was most definitely not a thing Alfred Pennyworth did. He was always calm and collected, never raising his voice at all, him acting like he was half drunk was not a normal occurrence. Selina didn't even think she'd ever seen Alfred drink.

"I'm to inform you we have guests." He announced with a grad flourish, smiling stupidly as though he had just done something very funny.

"Where did you send them Alfred?" Bruce asked, more than a little uneasy at the sight. In this town you never knew why someone was acting odd.

"They aren't for you!" Alfred bellowed, looking offended at the mere thought of Bruce assuming people had come to visit his home to see him. "They're for her." He explained, pointing at Selina, who had yet to get out of the car. "She asked for you both but Selina was the one she wanted to see first. And so the lady shall." He beamed with pride at the mention of a lady and Selina inwardly groaned. She knew who brought out that kind of reaction. A house call was unexpected, and out of character. Besides, as far as Selina knew, she had been safely inside the Arkham maximum security wing.

"He's greened." Bruce remarked flatly, guessing she had already figured out who the Lady was. Selina pushed herself up to go run to the greenhouse, Ivy's air concoction didn't affect her. Selina would be able to figure out what she wanted, fix it, then sneak her out and no one would be any wiser for it.

"Where do you think you're going?" Bruce demanded as he maneuvered Alfred into a seating position. Selina just shrugged and motioned in the direction of the greenhouse as though it should be obvious. It wasn't billionaire playboy who was in front of her, thought it still looked like him. It was pissed off Bat. Very pissed off Bat. The kind that showed up when she said something mean about Robin or Batgirl.

"Wait for me." Bruce insisted, letting Alfred recover a bit after being injected with something and having something held in front of his mouth and nose. Selina only rolled her eyes, and spent the time she could managing to make progress towards the greenhouse. It took Bruce less than a minute to catch up with her, but he did and told her she should be laying down and to let him handle it.

"Didn't you hear Alfred?" Selina asked, saccharine sweet. It was the tone that always came before knocking his Bat-ass on the ground. "They're here for me."

"I'm not letting you do this by yourself or alone." He replied, with the same sort of tone he used when telling her no to things she wanted to hear yes to. She shrugged and muttered that it was his funeral, before walking off again. He wanted to run the show fine, but Ivy required a delicate hand. She was touchy even on peaceful terms, and pissing her off could result in the two of them being strangled by plants.

Despite being much faster than her, he stayed by her side, though just far away enough if she took a swipe at him she would unbalance herself, something she knew he had done on purpose. The bored FBI agents gave them no special looks, as the Selina incident was old news. Some nodded in greeting to Bruce but other than that they remained still. It was all about making sure the Waynes didn't get murdered after returning to Gotham. The greenhouse was indeed their destination to go as little flowers that had not been there lined the trail, an Ivy sign of welcome.

Bruce didn't say anything, content to let her handle this on her own. That and he was scheming many different ways he could excuse taking down Poison Ivy down as Bruce Wayne and make it look like a complete lucky coincidence. Selina was willing to bet he had thought of a similar scenario beforehand, and had an idea in place to use.

It was the other element that came with Ivy he didn't seem to be expecting, the loud scream of "KITTY THANK GOD YOU'RE OKAY!" and a sudden sharp pain that came from being hugged very tightly by a blonde with pigtails.

"Let her go Harley" A soft voice whispered from deeper in the greenhouse. Ivy would have been hard to find if it hadn't been for the plants that were curling around a specific area. "And you brought him with you. Good."

"Can we sit down?" Selina asked, being more winded from the walk than she had thought she would be. Bruce slowly and cautiously went and found her a chair, never taking his eyes of the two Rogues. He was analyzing, preparing, and looking for things they may want.

Ivy and Harley waited patiently for her to take a seat before Ivy started. "This is more than a welcome home visit I'm afraid."

"Why are you here?" not trusting either of them for a minute. Ivy's eyes hardened before they softened a bit. That was new. It must have been big to deal with being interrupted, even more so since the interruption came from a man.

"We need your assistance of course. Unless you've gone and resigned your Arkham board membership." Ivy noted sweetly, and sensing his confusion she sighed, bits of her impatient side coming out. "You're the only one on the board who gives a shit about what happens to us freaks and you know it. We need you."

"You mean because I'm the one who pushed for that internal investigation and policy overhaul." Bruce corrected and Ivy nodded. Batman had learned a few years ago about the mistreatment and horrible conditions inside Arkham: assault, abuse, denying food and water, mixing up medication just to mess with prisoners, stealing of medication, bribery. It had been a mess and he'd spent a large amount of time pushing for new standards in the asylum, and getting rid of anyone who had taken part in the inhuman treatment.

"Things are getting bad and we're hoping you'll help us. All us merry people are enjoying our stay in Arkham, courtesy of the Vigilante you fund, and don't even try to hide it, I've greened your tech department and a few accountants."

"We still haven't gotten to the part where you need assistance. If the problem even exists in the first place." Bruce snapped back at her, before Selina could even get a word in. Ivy rarely asked for favors, and they were well worth their weight in gold after you did them. Selina used them to avoid being put on plant duty when Ivy went to Arkham. Ivy's rage began to unfold, vines uncoiling themselves from the base of a tree, which did not seem to phase Bruce at all. That only encouraged her.

"You gotta help me Mista Wayne!" Harley wailed, breaking the tension and throwing herself onto him like a lost puppy. "The doctor got me, and I'm going to die next. I know I know I know! I don't wanna die and you've got to help us please."

"Hold on. Slow down." Nothing got his attention quite like a lead from a damsel in distress did. Men with hero complexes. Selina got up and guided the now sobbing Harley to the chair she had recently vacated. The poor thing shook with sobs and fear, and seemed genuinely terrified. For someone who got knocked around by the Joker a lot, she was very fragile, especially coming straight out of Arkham.

"There's a new Doctor. I don't know his name" Ivy explained. "He only shows up at night and targets high risk inmates, like us. He sedates us, and we end up somewhere far underground." Ivy shuttered in repulsion and her plants joined her. "I don't know what he's doing, he keeps injecting stuff, messing with things, trying out drugs. He stopped bothering me after he learned you can't drug me."

"But then he went onto Harvey?" Selina guessed, and Ivy nodded.

"Then all of a sudden Harvey just vanishes. They say he got released but he wasn't supposed to be for a little longer. He's barely out, not acting himself and then he's showing up dead. Then they let Zsasz out."

"But Zsasz is on the do not release list" Bruce interjected, "The head Psychiatrist makes reports to the board monthly, he always includes things like who is never going to get released so we can better take into account where funding is going. And new hires, there has been no one recently hired who has clearance to the maximum security wing. In fact, no one has been moved from their current rotation in over two months."

"That didn't stop them from letting Zsasz out anyway. Walked him straight down the hall." Ivy explained, pleased she had managed to get Bruce to see her way without resorting to greening him. Selina wasn't quite sure what she would do if Ivy decided greening Bruce was a good idea. She'd tried before but he'd always managed to wiggle out of it somehow.

Harley had stopped sobbing quite so loudly but she was still shaking. Selina didn't know what to do with her, she had never been close to Harley like Ivy was, but she still made an effort to calm her down, trying everything from stroking her hair to telling her Knock-Knock jokes.

"Did he take you too Harley?" Selina inquired and got a nod, which only set off another round of sobbing.

Selina resumed stroking her hair, while Bruce and Ivy argued about whether a hospital was needed. Ivy said no, because that was the exact place that had gotten them into this mess, plus his dad was a doctor. Bruce was busy arguing the medical equipment needed was not at the manor, but a large amount of federal agents where. Selina went over her arms and neck, and noticed several injection sites. They were obviously recent, and if things were as bad as Ivy claimed, Harley needed assistance. Despite Ivy and Joker's best efforts, Harley wasn't immune to everything,

"If you two would stop whining, this may be important." Selina noted, just loud enough her voice held more authority than theirs. Ivy travelled down her vines and Bruce carefully crossed over to where Harley was, who was not enjoying being the center of attention like she usually did.

"She needs a doctor." Bruce insisted while Ivy stated there would be no hospitals and that was final. She also threatened to green him into cooperating, which only exhausted Selina even more.

"Enough." She snapped at both of them. "We won't go to a hospital, but we do need a doctor. There will be no greening or threatening to call the police on each other and that's final." Bruce had the decency to look upset but Ivy was just glaring, plants began to coil up around her feet again.

"I know of a doctor who might help us." Bruce began carefully. "She's a friend of my fathers. She runs a clinic in the East End that may have what we need."

"Then take us there." Ivy ordered, and Harley pulled herself and hung onto Selina, both of them holding each other up.

Bruce looked very upset, and finally accepted his situation, that was far from ideal. "After this you will not bother her again and if it turns out you two are lying your next stop will be Police Plaza." He went to go grab a car to bring into the city and check on Alfred. He was always like that when he couldn't control the situation around him.

"Is he always like that?" Ivy inquired, "Because if he is he must have some nice treasures in that house of his."

"He just doesn't like criminals, especially now that his parents are back." Selina lamely tried to cover for him. Ivy didn't buy it. "You know how they got taken away by crooks when he was a kid. It messed him up. He's a good person on the inside."

"Well," Harley sniffled. "For someone who doesn't like people like us he's one of the only ones that gave a damn about us when that investigation went on. He was really nice."

"Yeah." Selina nodded along, sighing. "He is." He was just really terrible about showing his appreciation to people.

* * *

 **14:30**

 **The Martha Wayne Clinic and Care Center, Gotham East End**

 **Bruce**

The last thing he wanted was to play chauffeur to two rogues who broke out of Arkham to track him down. Bruce liked to keep his nightlife separate from his day persona as much as possible, and getting roped into helping the two would only bring Bruce and Batman closer to unification.

Alfred had not approved of course, but he understood what Bruce was doing and where he was going. It was the only place he'd have any kind of privacy besides the batcave, and the last thing Ivy and Quinn needed to know was that he was Batman. Alfred had promised to keep the agents busy, not that they seemed to notice anything going on around them, and that Bruce had better be back later.

Whatever he had done or said to tick Alfred off, it needed fixing. But first a doctor.

He'd grabbed a basic sedan, not too flashy and new to stand out on the East End, but not enough to attract the wrong kind of attention. Even in the daylight things could be unpredictable and he preferred knowing and controlling as many variables as possible. Blending in was essential, as well was they could blend in.

Despite ditching their Arkham garb for street clothes, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn didn't exactly blend in with the everyday person. Selina, who had chosen to be mad at him after him coming clean, didn't exactly fare any better, it was incredibly obvious she was injured, and around here, it only took a little blood for sharks to come out.

"The Martha Wayne Clinic. I thought we were going somewhere private." Ivy snapped, annoyed from the backseat. She had already been upset she didn't get to drive, then it was she didn't get to sit in the front seat. After that she spent the entire ride complaining about how the car was destroying the planet and her babies and how man was terrible and awful. If he'd had a way to escape the situation and get away clean he would have. No wonder the rest of the Rogues seemed to avoid her.

Harley sat in the back and sniffled, looking out the window and curling up in her seat, almost child-like. She'd never stood a chance against the Joker.

Selina had sat up front, still giving him the cold shoulder. He'd have to figure out why she was mad eventually, right now he had more pressing issues to take care of.

"The clinic." He explained, "is run by a Doctor who has a fully equipped medical center. Since I provide funding for the clinic she will see you. But after this-" he turned to glare at the backseat for full effect. "You will leave her alone, and not involve her in anything understand? She's a good lady."

"Of course Mista Wayne." Harley answered, just happy to get to see a real doctor and at the thought of not dying.

"Wait in the car. I'm going to let her know you're coming."

Bruce knew she didn't see patients on a Thursday unless it was an emergency. An escaped Arkham patient was an emergency. Oh he'd owe her for this. As if he didn't already owe her many times over for the times she'd saved his life before Alfred could arrive.

He didn't even have to ring the buzzer. Dr. Lee Tompkins opened the door and stared at him in a way meant to inspire shame. Her graying hair, steely eyes and attitude made her intimidating despite her short stature. The rules of the East End clinic were very clear, no one targeted her clinic or they would pay for it. Newcomers assumed she was a frail doctor they could boss around. They quickly learned otherwise.

"Alfred called." She hissed. "What are you thinking?"

"If they're telling the truth a normal hospital wouldn't be safe. Besides you'll have me."

"I'm used to gang-bangers, reckless young men and people who can't afford healthcare. Not dangerous psychopaths." She snapped and glared at him some more. Then relaxed. "I suppose since they're already here, bring them in."

After returning to the car, Harley and Ivy practically ran inside while Bruce stayed behind to offer his arm to Selina. She refused to take it, not that he was expecting anything else, he figured some coldness was to be expected.

"Can I at least get the door for you?" He asked only to be meet with a look that told him he'd have claws in his face if he asked her in a different situation. She was unsteady on her feet, clinging to the rail and taking the stairs slow.

"No." It was the second sentence he'd really gotten out of her today.

Bruce beat her to the top of the stairs and opened the door for her anyways. She was too tired to argue. It worried him, she should be resting in order to make as quick of a recovery as possible, not pushing herself to go all over town for some Rogues and exhausting herself. He knew it was not in Selina's nature to be taken care of, but dang it he wanted nothing more than to keep her safe and somewhere she could heal.

Inside, Dr. Tompkins was trying to get out of Harley and Ivy what had happened. Keyword here was trying.

"So, you have no idea what you got injected with, nor can you list any of the possible symptoms." It wasn't a question, she phrased it very matter of fact. Something Ivy took an issue with and the potted bamboo plant on the reception desk appeared to grow twice in size.

"I told you, I'm not affected by drugs unless I choose to be. That's when the guy stopped. But he went farther with Harley and knocked her out."

Dr. Tompkins took a deep breath. Bruce would owe her a great deal indeed. Maybe enough for another staff member. "Alright then Harley, can you please describe what you felt?"

The petitie blonde nodded, "I got pulled out of my cell, I got sedated or something first because I felt sluggish. Like I'm trying to swim in air but I can breathe. We take a lot of turns, I don't remember how many."

"15. There were 15." Poison Ivy interjected before sensing it was a good idea to shut up. The peeved expression from Doctor Tompkins sent the message loud and clear.

"What Red said. Anyways, we get down to some lab room and I can't move."

"You were unable to move at all?" Dr. Tompkins inquired, suddenly sounding a lot more interested. Nothing bothered Tompkins more than selfish doctors or malpractice. It was why she had left hospitals despite the ability to make a large amount of money. She truly believed in helping people, and helping them was what she had dedicated her life to.

Quinn nodded. "Then he started poking me. Drawing blood, injecting stuff, then drawing more blood. Then he put me to sleep. I got really sleepy, and then it just went dark. I woke up back in my cell." She paused, eyes as wide as saucers. "Am I going to die?"

"I don't think so." Dr. Tompkins said absentmindedly. "If there was any kind of poison in your system, you would have seen some kind of affect or be dead by now. Also, despite what you see on tv, there's no drugs out there that can turn you into a zombie, not that your friends aren't trying. Can you tell me how you felt when you woke up?"

"Uhh, my mouth was all dry. I felt fuzzy, like tvs are when you play old tapes. My body ached and my head hurt."

"Where did your head hurt?"

"Here." Harley explained placing her hand on the lower backside of her head before wincing. "It hurts there."

It was the same place all the previous victims had been shot. Bruce didn't believe in coincidences, and based off the look on their faces, neither did anyone else in the room.

"May I take a look?" Dr. Tompkins asked nicely, pulling on some gloves. Harley looked over at Ivy, who nodded, causing Harley to nod. She balled her hands up into fists, bit her lip and let the doctor examine her.

Harley winced and whimpered several times, causing the plant on the desk to rear up again in tension. Selina was paying close attention from her chair, waiting to see the reactions of those around her.

"You've got a bump here. It looks like something got put in under the skin here. We'll have to take an x-ray to figure out what it is, okay?" The upset Dr. Tompkins was gone and in her place was a woman who was utterly dedicated to her craft, and someone who was determined to get to the bottom of what her patient was suffering, no matter how much effort it took.

* * *

Note: Sorry for the delay friends, I got very ill and then school started for me again. I hope you enjoy this chapter and where it is going, and if there's anything you think I got wrong or should add, let me know. Thanks for reading.


	10. Chapter 10

**18:30**

 **The Martha Wayne Clinic, East End**

 **Bruce**

It had been a long couple of hours, but the x-rays had proven something was indeed planted at the base of Harley Quinn's skull. It had taken even more time, along with a few calls to people Bruce knew, to confirm the device was a tiny explosive, and farther explanations from a few WayneTech engineers and ways to get the device out without triggering it.

The engineer in him was awed by the creation. Tiny, yet substantial enough it could make a head explode, while being virtually untraceable post-mortem based on the design schemes he'd borrowed from people who invent that kind of stuff. Bruce could only assume corners had presumed any traces left behind to be bullet fragments, or removed from the body post-mortem. He'd have to call in and say hello to his new Medical Examiner friend Jared to check out Zsasz again more throughly.

The tiny bomb itself was a Lexcorp design. He had studied their stuff enough to recognize trademarks of their design. A subtle L shape would have been a dead giveaway if he hadn't known what else to look for. It looks like it was time to take a visit to Metropolis, and maybe drop in on the alien.

The bomb was not really the problem once he had found a way for it to be nullified. It was remote controlled, so once the remote control was rendered inert and he'd successfully over-ridden the tampering devices, removal should be easy. After all, he'd spent a good amount of time working as a surgeon's assistant on a peacecorp mission to better understand field medicine. The bigger problem lay in who the bomb was attached to, and her sworn protector.

Poison Ivy flat out refused to let either him or Dr. Tompkins perform the extraction, stating they now actually needed to go to a hospital. With possible risks in the evidence collection chain, Batman was not about to let that happen. Besides, it would require some explaining as to how he knew what the device was, something his current company hadn't gotten around to asking him yet. Advantages to being the CEO, but a random citizen coming into a hospital with detailed schematics on a tiny explosive? That would set off more than one alarm bell.

Harley, the actual patient, insisted on getting it done as soon as possible. Ever since the word bomb had first been uttered she was like, well a madwoman. Bruce would never cease to be amazed that for someone who hung out with the Joker a lot, she didn't seem to really like explosions. Something Batman took note of, much to Selina's apparent ire.

Her mood had not gotten any better, despite laying down in one of the exam rooms and resting, but only after Dr. Tompkin's insisted. She had told him to fuck off whenever he checked in on her. Bruce knew Selina was probably tired and still in pain, but there wasn't much he could do unless she choose to admit it. And she wouldn't of course, at least not to him.

"We'll just inject some numbing around the area, you're going to feel a slight pinch." Dr. Tompkins explained, having already prepped Harley for the removal here, stating the patient's wishes were to be accommodated and that she was more than practiced in getting things removed, much to Ivy's anger. Ivy was being calm for the moment, sitting off in a chair to the side and watching their every move like a hawk.

Harley was a good patient, sitting still for the entire extraction and not even complaining once, though she had made a number of uncomfortable grimaces and other faces. He'd had to stare down Ivy more than once as she made to get up from the chair and attack them for hurting Harley, even if it was in her own best interest.

The device was incredibly small, smaller than his pinky-nail in fact. Yet it had the ability to have blown her head off. He would definitely be paying a visit to Lex Luthor and his shady associates, no matter how squeaky clean the businessman tried to appear, Bruce knew he was dirty. Some factions of the world even loved him for it, mostly people he made weapons for but he had his own fan club simply for being someone who didn't believe the rules applied to him. Not that he had any reason to believe they did seeing as he always got away with stuff.

Bruce was still confused. Where the hell did Lex Luthor and Talia cross? Let alone magic? Jason had made it clear in his round-about way that magic was involved. But none of the usual players who had the ability to get this stuff from Lex were magic users, with the possible exception of Ra's who only used it when he needed to.

Ra's involvement would have to be revisited, and not just because Bruce didn't trust him.

"I'd like to thank you both for your continued compassion towards people." Ivy started sweetly, almost as soon as the bandage was fully applied to Harley along with medication instructions. "But we have to be going now."

"I can't just let you back out on the streets." Bruce snapped, which made Harley giggle and Dr. Tompkins glaring at him again.

"And we can't just go back to Arkham." Ivy retorted, her voice as sweet as honey. Some people, dumber people, thought the voice meant she was playing along and was in a negotiating mood. In reality it was right before she was about to strike, like a cobra rearing up before a bite. "We'll be leaving, and you can tell your batty buddy we'll stay out of trouble. Promise."

Right. Ivy and Harley's idea of staying out of trouble was vastly different than most people's.

He was at a huge disadvantage here. He couldn't attack her, not without being able to at least guarantee that Dr. Tompkins wouldn't get hurt and that he'd get greened, and he didn't have any defenses, having used the last of it on Alfred. What a great situation. He had no real options other than to concede, just because he could fight didn't mean he should.

"That's exactly what I thought." Ivy sang, rather pleased with herself. Dr Tompkins had her hands balled up into fists, but Bruce had made sure to put himself between the doctor and the manics.

"You'll leave this clinic and never come back?" He asked and Ivy rolled her eyes as though the answer was obvious.

"As long as you and Bat-Boy find out what is going down at Arkham, your mommy's clinic is safe." She replied, and Bruce, as much as he hated it, let her go. He didn't really have any other good options at this point, besides, the small tracker he had attached to Quinn would be more than enough to get a location off of them.

She turned to leave, heels clacking on the floor and called for her friend to follow her. Instead, Harley gave both him and Dr. Tompkins a giant hug. "You know Wayne, you're alright. Even if you are buddies with Batsy. And thanks Doc, I owe ya one. Cash in anytime." With that parting gift, she ran off to catch up with Poison Ivy, holding what Bruce now realized were the sedan's keys. At least she'd fallen for that bait and he could track the car to wherever it went. It never hurt to have your bases covered.

As the door bell indicated the door had been closed chimed, Dr. Tompkins wasted no time in starting to yell at him. "You're an idiot with a death wish Wayne. Next time someone shots you, tries to throw a rocket launcher at you, hits you in the head with a large or small blunt object, drugs you, scratches you up or God above knows what else in the East End, I better not find you on my porch, you hear?"

"I hear Dr. Tompkins." He answered, which was not the answer she had been expecting. "Do you have any theories on the doctor of theirs?" he asked, hoping to change the subject. It worked, and her rage was directed at something else for the time being.

"A few." The older woman admitted, sighing and running her hands through her hair. "I thought they were making it up at first, going after some bleeding heart like you who might buy into their story. The more we investigated, the more they made sense even pre-X-ray.

"The drug they described is a very common drug used in hospitals, mainly in a surgical wing. It's designed to be a precursor to actual anesthesia. I know we took a blood sample, but the results will take a bit to come back with what was in her system, if it hasn't already dissipated. The routine she described sounded a lot like surgery prep to me, so whoever this mysterious doctor is you can bet he's had some formal medical training.

"The implant is something I've never seen, but it was obviously placed in a very specific location. The cover up was pretty good too, and if they'd doused her with more pain meds over a period of time, I doubt she would have ever found it unless she went through some detectors or randomly decided to get her head scanned. Which knowing Quinn wasn't likely." She paused thoughtfully. "Did any of the other Rogues that happened to visit the mystery doctor have an implant?"

"If they did, it was not recorded on the autopsy." He'd be combing through them a lot more know, maybe even breaking into the morgue to check over the bodies personally. It seemed there was more to them than the medical examiner thought. Provided he wasn't trying to cover it up. "Do you know what exactly I would be looking for?"

"Previous injection sites, for the drugs. Any drugs found in their toxicology reports. Signs of scaring around the skin or anything on them that looks recently healed."

Bruce nodded, already resolving to go out and search through some of Two-Faced places again. Maybe there was something in one of them that indicated he had been threatened, or if he was aware of the mysterious doctor operating within Arkham Asylum's walls. They'd gotten incredibly lucky with Zsasz, with both the implant and the bullet failing to explode. Harvey wasn't so lucky, and there would be even less evidence on him, if there was any to begin with.

"And Bruce, for goodness sake go get some rest, you look like death warmed over." He grimaced at the analogy, though for reasons other than Dr. Tompkins was aware. Dick, Barbara, and Alfred all knew better than to make death jokes when Ra's was in town.

He knocked on the exam room where Selina had decided to nap, and wasn't too concerned that there was no answer. He'd presumed she had been sleeping. Upon opening the door and finding the room empty, he got considerably more annoyed, only to have his phone ring.

"Hello Sir." Alfred's calm voice greeted him. "Ms. Kyle just arrived, seeing as you are not with her it seemed prudent to let you know."

"Thanks Alfred. You have impeccable timing."

"How did your doctor's visit go?"

"Productive, but some more testing will be done. Also, can you call me a car or something? Mine got borrowed."

"It will be there shortly sir. We will wait on you for dinner. No side-trips." And with that, Alfred hung up on him. Not that it was surprise, Alfred had a tendency to make biting remarks and be sarcastic when he was upset with him, though what Bruce had gone and done now he still wasn't aware of.

Nor was he sure what he had done to earn Selina's anger. Sure, some anger at him not telling her sooner was probably to be expected, but she seemed to have gotten over it. He wasn't sure what had caused this change of heart or what he could do to fix it. Maybe treating her like she was fragile hadn't been the way to go, but she was important and she'd gotten sliced up under his watch, which he still felt responsible for.

"You get some rest until your ride's here." Dr. Tompkins ordered from the front lobby, having eavesdropped on his conversation, and Bruce knew better than to argue with her. "I'll stay until it's here."

The wait wasn't long, but it was more than enough time for Bruce to think up many theories on the current predicament, some ranging from logical to so far-fetched they belonged in some comic-book. The pieces had to all fit together, but he wasn't able to make them fit. Not logically anyway. Tiny mini-bombs in people's head, sniper's copying Ra's, his parent's return, none of it was a coincidence, and as much as Bruce wanted to believe they could all be separate events, things were just to convenient, too close to home for him to think so. They were connected. But how was the billion dollar question.

* * *

 **19:50**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham city**

 **Dick**

To say dinner was awkward was the understatement of the year, maybe even the decade. First Selina had shown up at the house again, without Bruce and gone into her room to play with her cat, who for some reason hated Alfred, until it was time to eat. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne had watched her arrival interested, but after Dick explaining to him that the relationship between Bruce and Selina was at best 'complicated' they had avoided her, peppering Alfred, who had been trying to make dinner, with questions he was having a hard time deflecting.

Babs was still mad at him, though Dick couldn't bring himself to understand why. She should know better by now. Nevertheless, Dick had plans to apologize after dinner, if she even picked up the phone that is. Dick still believed she was in the wrong, but knew by now it was better to suck it up, apologize for his part, and ask if she wanted to go kick some Russian ass that night. He still had a few weeks until the dance anyways, he could ask at a time when she wasn't mad at him.

Bruce's arrival had taken the cake though. He'd come in pissed off, and Dick knew at times like that, all Bruce wanted was to eat dinner in silence. His parents were determined to not let that happen.

They'd gone and somehow convinced Selina to join them, how Dick wasn't sure, but were having a very nice conversation with her. Mrs. Wayne was beaming when Selina thanked her for her thoughtfulness on what to do with her blood-soaked dress, and said she loved the idea of making a replacement. Mr. Wayne was also getting along with her fabulously, as she could keep up with his talk about business.

Bruce was sulking at the other end of the table, having eaten his dinner as quickly as possible and made to leave before Alfred put a stop to that. Dick internally giggled, few people could boss him around like Alfred could.

"I have gone and set up the media room. Can I get you some popcorn Master Bruce or any desert?" The tone was one Dick knew very well, he'd been on the receiving end of it often enough. 'Master Dick you will get down from the chandelier.' 'Master Dick, please explain why there's a giant mess in the kitchen.'

Quick as a wink, Bruce instantly got with the program and stopped being so sulky. "I'm quite alright but thank you. Would anyone else like any?" He asked politely, the charming exterior back on in full force. Both his parent's beamed at him, while out of the corner of his eye Dick saw Selina roll her eyes. He had to bite down on his lip to keep from giggling.

"No son, I'm good." Thomas Wayne explained good naturedly while his mother nodded along.

"I'm going to have to say no thanks. Gapping hole in the side and all." Selina quipped, though Dick had run into her enough to know she was being mean. The slight face flush on Bruce was enough to confirm it, and Selina returned to her soup, unaffected.

"You don't worry about that dear." Mrs. Wayne cooed, "We know some wonderful doctors, we won't even let you go with a scar. Least we can do seeing as we insisted Bruce take you to that event in the first place." Selina smiled, Bruce grimaced ever so slightly, and Dick made a silent resolve to not get involved in whatever little game they had going on. Dealing with her as Robin as dangerous enough, dealing with Selina when she was in a bitchy mood was something else entirely.

"Since you're the guest Selina, you get to pick the movie." Bruce chimed in sweetly and it was her turn to look slightly put off. This would be fun if Dick knew he didn't have to deal with pissed of Batman later. He couldn't even begin to feel sorry for whatever poor shumack decided tonight was the time for a robbery or some other illegal activity.

"Well, I really do enjoy superhero flicks. Let's watch Ironman." She answered and Dick mentally assigned Selina another point. Enamored with Superheroes, an art company had decided to make superhero franchises to get money off the publicity. Despite there being a ton of money, Hollywood, writers and whatnot were not dumb enough to try and write about Batman, Superman, or any associated villains. The ones who tried got visits in the night that it would be an unwise idea. So, never one to give up easy, the entertainment industry decided to display some actual creativity for once and create their own heroes. Selina picked Ironman, a superhero whose main characteristic was that he was super wealthy and could be a bit of a control freak and asshole.

"I think that sounds lovely." Bruce answered right back, not about to let her see he saw what she was doing and wasn't happy about the comparison. Selina just smiled, looking like a cat who had in fact eaten the canary.

"I think that sounds wonderful. Though I'm going to warn you now, Thomas is a movie-talker." Martha Wayne told the group while Thomas vehemently denied he was.

It made Dick sad in a way. While he was nothing but grateful for all Bruce had done for him, and even though he looked up to Bruce a great deal, it wasn't the same as having his parents back. Thomas and Martha Wayne, his grandparents, reminded him so much of his own parents it hurt sometimes. Dick privately wondered what Bruce would be like if they had been able to raise him, and if he wouldn't been so broody.

"Ironman it is." Alfred declared, and went off to make some popcorn anyways. Bruce went to go set up the media room, though Alfred had probably done it already, Selina went to go get her cat whom Thomas Wayne had expressed interested in meeting, and Martha Wayne insisted on helping clean up dishes.

Dick decided to use the time to sneak out of the room and call Babs. Even if he was doing some mandatory family time, which Bruce had done with him when he had first become a member of the household, there was no reason to let his partner in crimefighting stay mad at him. Besides, if she was ever going to say yes to going to the dance with him, she needed to have already gotten over being mad at him for a while before the question had a possibility of being answered yes. The last thing he needed was a pissed off Batgirl for a completely different reason, and she didn't need to think of him as some kind of supreme asshole. Not that she hadn't already called him an asshole.

* * *

 **22:30**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham city**

 **Selina**

She had been trading barbs with Bruce all night, and was currently winning. Not that she was counting or anything, that would be a petty and childish thing to do. And she was above such things, but if anyone did happen to be counting, they would note she was 5 points ahead.

Shortly after the movie ended, Dick ran off, claiming he had a busy day at school tomorrow. Bruce ran along right next to him, determined to not get roped into another movie. He mentioned something about having to call someone from a different timezone, and like the trusting people they were, his parents waved him off.

She'd left as well, claiming she was tired, which was the truth. Medication could only do so much to make her feel better, and the only thing that would help was some sleep, that and some plotting and going over some of the manor's security features wouldn't hurt either. It helped keep her mind busy.

No sooner had she made her way into her guest room when her cell rang, her personal one and with a number she didn't recognize. She kept a separate one for work, but had turned it off and put it away, not needing to be tempted by any jobs before she was fully recovered. The patience a master thief required to pull certain jobs, used up all of her available patience in other areas of her life. She'd become impatient with being bed-bound the same night she'd gone and gotten stabbed.

With her luck it was some salesperson, which is why she had no problem giving a rude "Hello?" to the caller on the other end.

"Hello girl from the hospital. Do you know where the detective is? I need him for something." Great, the guy who looked like a vampire from a D-list horror flick had her cellphone number. Was some higher being out to get her? Was this punishment for stealing?

"Why don't you call him?" she sweetly suggested.

"Because he won't answer the phone if he knows its me. He doesn't really like me, though I don't understand why after all I've done for him. I was like a father to him at one time."

"Funny he doesn't talk about you much."

"Well of course he doesn't, he doesn't trust you thief. Anyways, thanks for your time Tigercat or whatever your name is. If I need you to steal something my people are for some reason incapable of doing, I'll give you a call."

Point to vampire. "I appreciate the sentiment." She spat out, wishing he was in front of her to scratch up.

"You should, compliments from the Demon's Head are rare, let alone bestowed on common people often."

Before she could get a retort out, the bastard hung up on her, depriving her the satisfaction of hitting the red button on her phone to hang up on pompous Vampire.

"Asshole." She growled, and proceeded to pace furiously around the room. Where on earth did Batman find such a self-absorbed human being? Did his statements have any validity or was he just grandstanding again? What the hell was a Demon's Head? She had already known he didn't trust her but it made her angry all the same for him to rub it in her face like that.

There was precious little information on them on the internet, mainly on conspiracy sites claiming they were attempting to take over the world and controlled politicians all over the world. If the conspiracy was to be believed, they were an elite group of assassins who did work for hire, and for whatever reason were super into a green earth initiative. He and Ivy were perfect for each other. They both thought obnoxiously highly of themselves to the point of narcissism, loved the planet and had no problem killing people.

She mentally kicked herself for not thinking to ask Alfred, and went off in search of him. Despite the large house, she knew he'd show up behind her sooner or later, it was some kind of sixth sense of his, and Selina wasn't disappointed. He'd showed up when she went into the library, pretending to look over the area that contained that damn safe with a weight mechanism.

"Alfred, tell me about the Demon's head."

A slight expression of surprised covered the man's features before he schooled them into a neutral face. "I think that's a story Master Bruce ought to tell you."

"But I'm asking you." She reminded him before trying a different approach. "He won't stop calling me and I just want to know what I'm up against."

"Well in that case-"Alfred muttered, and gestured for her to follow him into a part of the manor that would ensure they weren't disturbed and the owners of the house would not be able to listen in on. "What would you like to know Miss Kyle?"

"Why don't you start from the beginning."

"Well, a young Master Bruce got it in his head that being a vigilante was what he wanted to be in life, and went off to search the world in search of people to teach him. Ra's Al Ghul, the man who calls himself the Demon's Head was one of the people he sought out. Unfortunately, Bruce underestimated his manipulative tendencies, which lead to a long period of fighting between the two."

As Alfred continued, Selina had a harder time keeping up. A man who was centuries old and who sought out all kinds of magic, a daughter named Talia, kidnapping Dick, someone convinced they could change Bruce into something he didn't want to be. She was almost sorry she had asked. Almost.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'll be trying to update more often but can't make any promises.


	11. Chapter 11

**4:00**

 **The study sitting room, Wayne Manor, outskirts of Gotham city**

 **Selina**

After Alfred's bizarre-enough-to-be-true explanation, she'd attempted to coax Alfred into telling her where the cave was. When he refused to do that, saying he needed express permission and there was a security over-ride that needed Bruce, Alfred did take pity on her and said he would go through the study front room once he arrived home and suggested she wait there. So that was what she did, despite being tired.

There was simply too much going on. What did a psycho assassin warlord have to do with sniper deaths and doctors doing weird stuff to Arkham asylum patients? Was there even a connection? What about the security system of the shady art collector Camilla Fritton who was coming to Gotham? Not to mention her own intense physical therapy session and workouts she did to try and keep her stamina up. Life wasn't going to slow down any time soon, and she almost felt bad for complaining when things were slow and boring. Almost, not enough to admit to it.

She'd been dozing off and on for the past hours, only really being awake when the grandfather clock chimed off another hour. She'd gone and collected Isis at one point to keep her company but other than that, she had not left the oddly stiff couch. She'd run out of things to look at in the room by midnight, and that was around the same time her side insisted she take it easy.

Selina woke up at the sound of Dick giggling.

"Did you see that Russian guys face when I answered him in Russian? Boom surprise!"

"You know the rules. We don't talk about work outside of work." He may have been in Bruce's clothes but it was Batman doing the scolding. It was kind of nice that someone was on the receiving end of that for once.

"I know, but his face. It was like, boom, instant confusion." Dick continued, unwilling to be silenced until a very loud shushing.

"Don't stop on my account." Selina tried to use her general joking tone but her need for sleep bleed through. "I hate Russians almost as much as Italians."

Bruce, dressed in a pair of sweats looked unamused at her encouragement of Dick. She decided she was done dealing with Batman and changed the subject. "Your bff the great and mighty and not mention humble demon buddy called. He says hi."

Bruce closed his eyes, took a deep breath and ordered Dick to go to bed. The joking mood was gone at the mention of demons and he quietly scampered up the stairs. Dick was however unable to resist the urge to use the handrail as a device to flip off, showing off and conveying his displeasure at being excluded from the conversation.

"Why don't we go get somewhere quiet and talk this over? It may take a while." The tone was light and airy, as if she had just asked him about how his favorite sports team was doing, or what he thought about the weather that particular day. Selina was able to see for the first time the Batman in him. The ability to adapt quickly to anything. Most masked figures made their identity a full time job, and very few were part timers like herself and Batman. The more she paid attention, the more she saw he had been under her nose the entire time. Bastard.

She ignored his extended hand to help her off the couch, and instead disturbed Isis, who although used to night time activity, never liked having nap time disturbed. Selina brought her cat along with her, cats hand been a constant security blanket throughout her life, and she was not going to let that go anytime soon.

Bruce sulked all the way into the kitchen, an opened the pantry door and gestured for her to go in first.

"I am not going anywhere until you explain." Selina pulled her cat closer to her, and her face looked offended at the very idea of talking in a pantry. In a house this large, surely there had to be other places they could talk. "Start talking."

He didn't talk. Instead he went in and gestured her to follow him. Difficult man.

Once they were both inside, He moved aside a few tin boxes whose contents only Alfred knew, and revealed a small, slightly discolored square in the wood of the back wall. He carefully pressed in a certain sequence on the sides, Selina's brain instantly committing them to memory. Down, Left, Left, Up, Up, Right, Up Left.

The panel next to the stored rice, oatmeal and other starches slide open to reveal a tiny hallway. It was small enough someone as broad shouldered as Brue had to turn to the side to fit through, but for someone slight like Selina, she fit through easily. Cat and all.

The staircase down was made of stone, and was worn in several places. How had she never seen or heard of this until now? She'd thought her blue print guys were the best in the business. Apparently not. The way down was dark, automatic motion sensing lights flickering on to offer just enough light to get down.

The staircase winded around several times and took several random turns, probably following the natural rock the house was built on. The steps were uneven, and had dips in several places. Even though she would never admit it out loud, she was starting to get tired and Isis was longing to go exploring in her new environment, ever curious about new terrain.

The staircase abruptly came to an end right at a turn, turning into a very modern looking large metal door with a combination in it. This was more her speed.

Bruce broke the long silence first. "The combination is Alfred's first time stitching me up from a bullet wound. Figured it would be only something we could know." He gently put the numbers into place, and pushed open the door and gestured her in, "Ladies first."

Selina was so curious about finally getting to the secret lair she didn't even bother to fight with him. The place was huge, much larger than she had thought. The cave was at least two and a half stories high, and fit Batman perfectly. There was a giant section dedicated to practicing sparring, multiple balance beams, ledges to practice grappling, and all manners of weight equipment. There was a smaller section, almost like a mini building inside the cave, that contained host of medical equipment. Next to that was the larger lab, with enough machines and tech that would make university lab geeks jealous. Nestled next to the lab and in the corner was a large computer system along with a few work stations, with a separate indented space with multiple humming servers.

The air was cool, and she felt deep underground. Once she stepped closer into the middle, she saw what was along some of the other walls. A dinosaur, multiple joker boxes, other knick knacks like multiple Penguin umbrellas, a giant penny, and other rogue themed things he'd taken along with what looked like a large filing area. Then there was some kind of giant safe area again, that she would have to get into, and the car, along with a bunch of other bat themed vehicles.

"All you need is boat." She remarked sarcastically and he gestured to a tunnel leading off from the vehicle areas, leading to what was no doubt a boat. Selina couldn't help but roll her eyes. Of course he had a boat, and if it was anything like the collection of various batmobiles and motorcycles, he had multiple. Of course he did.

"Why did you show this to me?" Selina asked, and Isis meowled to be let down, no doubt to explore her new area that the cat had probably already thought of as her space. There was a slight rustling that caught the cat's attention farther down in the darkness, and Isis went off to investigate.

"Bats." He explained calmly. "She'll be fine." Of course his bat cave had literal bats. Despite insisting, he was not a showy guy, there was a lot of bat themed stuff in here. All he needed was to start a Batman merchandise franchise and he could be a billion or so richer.

"Why. Did you show this to me?" She repeated and he went over to the medical area, sitting down in one of the many chairs that was nearby. He indicated to the seat next to him. She didn't take it, opting to put her hands on her hips and glare at him. "I asked you a question. If you're not going to answer I'm going to crack that large vault over there." Her legs still felt weak and her side was on fire, but she was determined to one up him no matter what. She may be in his lair, but damned if she was going to do whatever he asked her to just because he showed her the batcave. Rogues had been trying to get in for years, and there was a pool at the iceberg for the first person to get into the batcave. There was also a bigger prized for the cowl, but the batcave one was what she really wanted. Who knew what trophies he had in here?

"Selina, please don't do that." For the first time he sounded tired too. "It was pointed out to me you thought I hadn't trusted you, and I wanted to prove that I did." He looked at her, expressionless. Bruce may be talking but it was Batman behind the wheel. "And," he sighed. "You deserve to know what you're going into."

That was what she wanted to hear. Selina sat down, holding her breath in until the sigh of relief passed her. She stretched out into the office chair, making every effort to appear nonchalant, not about to let him off the hook just yet. "So Alfred gave you a call?" She questioned, looking down at her nails. She really should get them done, she didn't feel herself unless they were done up and powerful. Sure she wore claws on her suit, but claws in real life were a defense mechanism.

"He did." Bruce confirmed. "Almost as soon as you got out of him who Ra's was. Don't play games with him, he's dangerous."

"Who? Alfred or Ra's?" she asked, while at the same time rolling her eyes and he sighed, exasperated.

"He can't die, has more life times of experience than any of us combined, and controls a large network of assassins, weapons dealers, and contraband, in everything from drugs to rare art and everything in between. He's kidnapped Dick from this house to make a point."

Selina looked up from her nails, she had a small hangnail on her left hand. "Before or after I re-did your security?"

"Before but that isn't the point."

"Then what is the point?" Her temper flared "So he's dangerous, a psycho who thinks too highly of himself and deals in the black-market. Why is he special?"

"Because it was his bullets in Zsasz and probably Dent too. But he claims he isn't involved."

Selina snorted, "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like duck, it probably is a duck. Doesn't take the great detective to figure that out. Why do you believe him, I thought you didn't trust the word of criminals. No wait let me guess, he really is like a father to you and you trust him way more than you ever did me."

"Can you please just let me explain?" There it was, the flash of anger she knew she could inspire in him. He always let more slip when he was emotional, and with no Batman to hide behind, Bruce would have to come clean on center stage. The comment about his dad really got to him, his hands clenched up and his jaw got noticeably tighter. Good. Exactly what she wanted. Maybe it wasn't fair, or nice, but she didn't want to be in the dark.

She watched Bruce deflate and take a breath in.

* * *

 **4:10**

 **The Batcave, somewhere below Wayne Manor**

 **Bruce**

She was pushing his buttons on purpose. He knew her well enough to know she was playing games because she was still mad at him, and even though he was trying to fix it, she wasn't about to let up until he went and waved a white flag. Which was coming next, he just had to get a word in without her getting mad at him.

Alfred had called, explaining Ra's had rung her on her private number, something which disturbed him greatly. It had the exact effect Ra's wanted, in that he sent Dick and Barbra, who were now getting along again, to go to the Russian meet-up and he went to confront Ra's himself.

Ra's had been patiently staring at the window until Batman had appeared. He was grinning in that creepy way of his, when he knew he had won. Batman didn't like it.

Their chat had not gone well at all, especially considering Ra's opened with "So she's your distraction to deal with the pain of not having Talia?" Things had gone downhill from there, with Ra's demanding he start knocking down into lairs and looking for Talia, while Bruce was insisting that an armed sniper who went after released Arkham patients after they had been experimented on was more important. Both men had left the conversation angry, which Bruce knew had also been his intention.

Behind the mask of seemingly senile and insane figure, Ra's was very manipulative and cunning, especially when it came to getting what he wanted. Most of the time he got what he wanted, and those times Ra's didn't he was like a toddler. Bruce had told Ra's he was welcome to search on his own, but there was to be no killing, no connection with Batman, and he was not to do anything incredibly illegal. Ra's found those rules overally restrictive. The conversation ended at a stalemate, with Bruce assuring him he would listen and follow up on any leads brought to him, as well as keep an eye out. The last thing he need was Ra's deciding to go through Gotham himself and causing some kind of incident.

After that, Bruce had gone to check over Arkham, doing a personal count of all the inmates. He snuck some medical files that were kept on the local server, a necessity after a group had hacked into the system and put some confidential files on certain villains online for entertainment. The asylum was as it had always been, old, creepy and disturbingly easy to move around in and not get caught. He'd have to fix that. Again. Every time he or Bruce Wayne and the board pushed for a security overhaul, things got better for a few months and then went lax again. It was how people kept getting out and how apparently doctors ran tests on inmates that were unapproved.

An impatient throat clearing brought him to the present, where the woman in front of him still looked like she wanted to throw something at him. She was hurting still, although she was doing her best to hide it. It had to be unnerving, to get thrown into this world very suddenly, even if she thought she was familiar with it.

Bruce got up to go grab her blanket. "Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning." She didn't stop glaring at him even as he dropped the blanket over her, though he did notice she shifted slightly to become more comfortable.

"I'd just finished college. I was still angry, had no real direction in life and just needed to do something. So I told Alfred I would be travelling for a while and went to Japan. I hadn't even meant to in the beginning. I found myself outside a Dojo in Japan I had researched and found to be a high center of learning and started there."

"Charming Bruce, but what does this have to do with anything?"

"Are you going to interrupt me all the time or let me tell this or not?" He asked her and she rolled her eyes, like she always did when he was right and she was annoyed with him. He continued "After I finished there, I went all over. I was obsessed with being the very best, like no one had ever been. I learned everything from anyone I could find to teach me. Breaking and entering, carjacking, Escape Artistry, magic, fighting people, behavior techniques, stuff like that. I went everywhere, South America Australia, Africa, until I found myself high in the Himalayas looking for my last stop. I'd heard rumors about a man named Ra's al Ghul and his elite fighting force.

"At first he refused to teach me anything, only convinced I was determined after I broke into his compound and sought him out without being detected. I had no idea who he really was, and he didn't let me know either. I'd dealt with shady people in the past but nothing on the scale of Ra's. I didn't find out his true colors until the very end."

"He sounds charming." She interrupted again, and raised her eyebrows at him when he sighed. This was already hard enough to tell her, he wasn't used to telling anyone anything straight, preferring to keep some part of his emotions in check. It was hard enough to talk to her when she was mad at him, but it was another to tell her what was coming next, even if he did trust her.

"He liked me a lot, though I didn't know until later. I was determined to prove I was capable of being what I wanted to be, and learned a lot in a short amount of time. Then I met Talia, his daughter." Of course Selina tried not to react but he could see the slight narrowing of the eyes, her attention more focused. She was intensely proud of the fact she was the only female in Gotham City who got away from Batman the most, that she beat him at anything.

"She was everything I thought I wanted." Bruce got quieter as he recalled this part of the story. He still remembered when they met, and way she had seemed to fit so easily into his life. "She seemed to care about everything I did and I was happy. To make a long story short, she pretended to be in trouble hoping I would kill someone to save her. Doing so would prove to Ra's that I was ready to be his successor." It had been a lot more complicated than that but Selina would get the gist. He had glossed over that part of the story almost entirely, preferring to not revisit the fighting and hurt he had experienced.

"I didn't kill anyone, and after I learned what Ra's really was, I left. No one there was who I had thought they were, and it was time to go home. Ra's and Talia didn't take it well" Understatement of the current centaury but Selina seemed to get it. Her smartass remarks were gone, and she was giving him her full attention. She seemed content to just let him get it all out because she probably knew as much as he did if he didn't get it out now, he never would bring it up again.

"The reason Ra's is in town is someone took Talia. Which isn't unusual, he's pulled this trick multiple times over the years. Apparently the kidnapper left a note with a bat on it. This was the same time his personalized bullets that all his elite assassins use started to show up in dead Arkham inmates. Ra's claims he isn't responsible, but he's sticking around to keep an eye on the situation and look for leads on Talia since the bullets being used by the sniper were stolen off her dead guards."

Bruce sighed, the full weight of the tale hanging over him still. He thought it would be better for her to know it now, but instead almost feared a reaction from her. She was along for the ride, and the last thing he wanted to do was drag her into a game with a volatile manic. "Any questions?"

"Many." She replied cheekily, grinning at him and causing some of the tension to leave him. Why had he been worried about telling her this in the first place, of course she would be all in. They had still been a team before, and nothing changed because masks were off. He needed to get his head together and stop acting like because she wasn't in a suit that she wasn't the same person. "Why am I here?" she queried again, the tips of her mouth curling into a smile and amusement written all over her face. She wanted to make him spell it out and say it, the first time hadn't been good enough for her. Infuriating woman.

"Because," He started carefully, "You're involved no matter whether any of us like it, especially since Ra's insisted on finding out about you. He followed me to the hospital in the name of working together. Because of what happened with Harvey attacking you, you're on the target list. It wasn't random whoever was pulling his strings had him single us out. Someone is sending a message, and you're a part of it. That and I was going to tell you anyways, being stabbed just gave me another excuse."

She grinned, and his white flag was accepted. Which was good because he didn't think he could stand an Ironman movie marathon with her commentary. There were some pretty pointed jabs his way.

He smiled back too. "Am I forgiven now?"

"No. Just for asking that question."

Just more proof that the more things changed, the more they would always revert back to the start.

"You look tired." He noted and looked over at his watch, it was almost 5:30 in the morning. He need to sleep, and being in a cold cave probably wasn't what she needed. "We'll take the elevator this time."

Bruce went off to collect Isis, who for some reason seemed to really like him, leaving Selina behind him, who was muttering about why they couldn't have taken the elevator in the damn first place.

* * *

 **9:00**

 **One Police Plaza, Gotham City Downtown**

 **Jim Gordon**

The phones had always been ringing off the hook in the Police station but even more so now since a tip-line for some bank robbers had gotten put up. The non-stop ringing was enough to give anyone a headache, and the station coffee, which was the cheapest city hall would get them, did nothing to help the throbbing. Add in some fluorescent lights, and you had a ticket to a blistering headache.

It didn't help matters when his own phone rang, meaning something must be important enough that he had to go look into it, or take care of something. People thought being the commissioner was more political than police work. That would be a lie, it was both on steroids. Not only did he have to personal responsibility to close cases, but whenever something bad happened he faced the wrath of city hall, the public and the media.

"This is Commissioner Gordon."

"Commissioner, this is the morgue. We have some men here who say they're here to pick up the bodies of Harvey Dent and Victor Zsasz." It was Dr. Simon working today, nice guy. He'd gone in the work he did in the start to pay off some of his doctor's loans, now he specialized in it full time and was recognized for his expertise. He also sounded pissed.

That made Gordon sit straight up in his chair. "No one is authorized to take them."

"I know. That's why we called. They say they have orders."

"Tell them I will be right down and to not do anything until I sign off on it. I'm not getting Gotham PD in trouble because someone didn't file paperwork correctly."

While it was unlikely people wanted the body for any other reason than to verify it was them and that the deceased was in fact dead, there had been stranger cases in Gotham city. Cannibalism, for one. Obsession with the dead was another and this town was just full of crazy people, who really needed a reason in this town to steal a body? Stranger things happened.

He made the long trek down the stairs, said hi to the receptionist, told one of his police captains he would see them in a meeting later, told another to keep him updated on the Rowllins case, and arrived to see his medical examiner on duty that day, Dr. Simon, arguing with men in suits.

"This is outrageous. You can't just waltz in here and take bodies because you claim to be the government. We're going to need some identification here. More than some badges."

"He's right." Gordon butted in, getting several men who screamed government operative staring at him disapprovingly. "I'm going to need some kind of authorization or official go-ahead in order to let you take them. It's just policy for the bureaucracy, surely you understand that."

They didn't move for a few moments, then one went outside briefly and re-emerged with a woman. She was short, but had a presence about her that was intimidating. It was how Gordon had felt when he went through basic and had faced down his first drill sergeant, who despite being five feet tall, was incredibly scary and could yell terrible things at him for over five minutes without repeating anything. She also screamed government, and Gordon knew it wasn't anything in the city government.

"Commissioner. I'm Amanda Waller." Even her voice was scary sounding, the voice of someone used to getting their way and used to making things happen. "This is your order from the Federal Government. We are conducting a research program into biological bases for mass-murders to develop. Here's your slip of paper." She threw it at him, and if she hadn't already walked off Gordon would have said something.

Sure enough, it was a government release form, like every other one he had ever seen. At least that was in place. It had her credentials too and certified she was the project manager in a government run research organization, something called Cadmus, that fell under Homeland Security. There was a number at the bottom, along with a few names. All of which Gordon recognized as state and federal officials.

"You can call that number or call the number you get for looking the person up online." She stated, walking closer to where the bodies were laid out on exam tables. She looked them over with a critical eye, disgusted by what she was looking at, her brow furrowed in revulsion. "They're legitimate."

"She can't just barge in here and take bodies off the table before our complete exam is done on Zsasz." Dr. Simon pleaded, looking at Gordon for help. The last thing any Doctor wanted was to give someone else authority, especially if it was over something he had. Add in the fact Dr. Simon had just returned from vacation and had only gotten to examine Zsasz last evening and this morning, made for an angry examiner. Dr. Simon's outburst caused the woman to turn around.

"Oh yes I can. I can even have your license revoked for impeding my progress or even just for looking at the body wrong." She then turned to look over at Gordon, dark brown eyes almost daring him to fight back. A smile engulfed the lower half of her face, teeth stark white in contrast to her skin. It was not a happy smile, it was a smile of aggression, Gordon had seen it often enough while working with criminals to recognize it.

"Dr. Simon, her papers appear to be legitimate. I trust the Federal Government will send us a copy for our records upon completion of the autopsy?" He couldn't resist that last little bit. It had always been a problem when the Federal Government had swooped into his department and tried to do things without notifying his officers or just flat out not telling him things. The least they could do was make sure their paperwork was in order.

"It will be on your desk when completed, I'll have our doctor send it over to you as soon as possible." she said, no longer paying attention to the two Gothamites. Her focus was entirely on the men moving out the body bags into a truck that had been waiting outside in the loading area marked "Police vehicles only Violators will be towed"

The Feds disappeared almost as quickly as they came, with only a "have a nice day gentlemen. I'll be in touch" to go on.

* * *

Just wanted to say thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the story. If not let me know what I can improve on.


	12. Chapter 12

**9:00**

 **The Batcave, far below Wayne Manor**

 **Bruce**

There were a lot of things that he had to take care of, and the world wasn't about to stop because he only got four hours of sleep. Most people thought his nightlife didn't appear with his daylife and vice versa, but the work of Batman was a round-the-clock job. Bruce Wayne, the billionaire and company owner, could be a day job that occasionally went overtime into the night due to charity and society events. But Batman, Batman worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year.

The first item on the do-do list was to make some inquiries into how a Lexcorp chip, a mini explosive, managed to get into Harley Quinn, discrete inquires. It would not do to seem like WayneTech was trying to steal stuff from Lexcorp. First of all, because his research remained six months ahead of anything Lex Luthor did, and secondly because it would not do to have Bruce Wayne investigating something Batman was interested in. So while he put his own feelers out, he'd also be sure to send the information to a reporter in Metropolis.

Which meant this phone call.

"Daily Planet, this is Lois Lane. I'm not at my desk because there's something more interesting going on but feel free to leave a message."

Damn it, busted. He made up some excuse about his parents wanting to throw a social thing and thought she would be the one to break the news. Lois wasn't stupid and she didn't do puff pieces, she had figured out his act when she still worked in Gotham. But she knew when he wanted to talk, there was something important going on.

The phone started ringing, and the caller ID indicated Lois Lane. Perfect.

"Hi Lois."

"You didn't really call me about your parents right? Because as nice as they seem, there's other stuff going on that sells." Never change Lois, straight and to the point.

"No, I was wondering if you'd get a message to Superman for me?"

"Superman? You called me to talk about Superman? Really Bruce?"

"Yeah, it's kind of important and Batman's busy. So I was wondering if you'd pass on a message or something for me."

"If it gets you off the line fine. How many 'p's in appreciate?"

"Two. And tell him to meet me in the Norma's diner on the corner of 57th and H after three. I have something he'd be interested in."

"Story?" Of course she wanted to know if there was something printable involved.

"Not yet. But when I have the facts, you'll be the first to know."

She hung up on him, which was probably the best he was going to get. He wondered if the mild-mannered reporter who sat nearby, Clark Kent, had picked up on the conversation. He hoped so, because he wasn't sure how else he was supposed to get his attention otherwise. Calling his desk phone would be too obvious, plus, everyone knew the only person Bruce Wayne would talk to at the Daily Planet was Lois Lane.

Now with that off the agenda, he could focus on the Wayne Foundation event coming up next month, to benefit the Amazon rainforest, some board members got it in their head it would be a good idea to do a Carnival theme. The last thing he wanted his event to be was Joker-bait. Not that criminals like him didn't leave those kinds of event alone, but making it Carnival themed was practically giving him an invitation. Just because he was in Arkham now didn't mean he would be in a few weeks. It was always better to be safe rather than sorry.

Which brought him to the next order of business. The security tapes of the high security wing, clean. Nothing out of place that wasn't supposed to be there. Most people would have looked it over and moved on, but after pouring over it, there was a small loop about two minutes long that repeated itself, whoever did the job one night got lazy and left the timestamp the same from two minutes previous. There were no cameras in or trained on the cells, something about patient privacy, but the hallway had been clear the entire time. Unless someone was in the actual hallway itself, which was only checked once every 3 hours due to a staffing problem, nothing looked out of place.

So there were two components to this he reasoned. One person who rigged the computer system, which had to be done from inside the asylum itself due to the closed network and no outside connections. Next was the actual person who took the criminal out, and brought them to some testing facility elsewhere in the asylum.

Bruce had his own personal copy of the blueprints, from the last time to the Asylum had been renovated, they were the only ones that existed, the previous ones had been "lost" from the city hall records building. He'd personally hunted down any copies, talking to old architects, builders, contractors and even members of the Arkham family and extended family, what few remained.

He started by looking at the time loops time, which was approximately one minute and fifty-three seconds long. That had to get them from their cell to another location. If it had gone down like Harley said, they could have been drugged during their evening medication. Some of those patients were on so many pills, it would probably very easy to slip them in, or even worse, a staff member was in on it and give it to them on purpose. It would certainly fit in with the timeline, once the drug took effect, whoever it was waited for them to be too far out to put up a fight. Next, came the 15 turns.

He started at Ivy's cell and started tracking different routes that had fifteen turns from her cell. There weren't very many, once you got out of the high security wing there were lots of turns but only because the hallways were so winding. Arkham did used to be someone's home after all. The high security wing was incredibly isolated for a reason, fifteen turns brought her to three spots. The entrance to the guard booth put there as a measure to quickly respond to a breakout. That one wasn't likely. There simply wasn't the space to work in the booth, even if the guard was in on it for whatever reason.

Next, he had two options. The mess hall, which also seemed unlikely but would have to be investigated anyway, and a dead end. The dead end wasn't really dead, but required keycard access to get into, and went down to a storage area as well as a room of old paper records. Bingo. It fit the underground and it being mysterious to Ivy, no one broke in to visit that part of Arkham. All the records down there were from when the asylum first opened, and any supplies down there consisted of things like mops. Not even cleaning chemicals to make something out of.

He went over the keycard records next, and didn't find an anomaly. Whoever pulled this job, if they did in fact go there, had the foresight to either hack the card system or just erased the entry. Either were things Bruce didn't like thinking about. They had either hacked the keycard system, his system, which meant that he had a system flaw. That or they had system access and were able to change the log because they worked there.

That meant the next order was to see who had keycard access. Of which there were a lot. Everyone from Doctors, Orderlies, Administrators and Janitors had access. Bruce set the computer to go through each of their files, look at family connections to any of the rogues, as well as if they had access to the high security wing as well as that door. Any matches he would investigate personally.

A slight buzz went off next to his computer, which meant Alfred asked for his presence upstairs. He probably wanted to have breakfast or something. Normally Alfred would buzz it once, give him some time to respond and then buzz again if he didn't show up. Now it seemed like Alfred was holding his finger on the button.

Oh that's right, he said he would take his parents out to brunch, and they would try eating out like a family again. Then they would go look at things in the city, maybe go see a movie. Not that spending time with his family was a drag or anything, it was just that he already had a routine and was a workaholic by nature. As much as he claimed he was open-minded, he hated change, there was a reason his routine was so rigid.

As long as he made his appointment with Superman. He just needed that to go well.

* * *

 **20:00**

 **One Police Plaza, Gotham Downtown**

 **James Gordon**

"What do you mean the bodies aren't here anymore?" If people thought his doctors were a control freak over a body, they had nothing on Batman. If he wasn't the commissioner, Jim was pretty sure he would have yelled it at him or said it in a more menacing tone. Hell, he'd probably even threatened to hang him off a building until Gordon gave him the kind of answer he wanted.

"I told you, the Feds picked them up. Some research program."

"There is no such research program. Cadmus doesn't have a biological arm." Batman snapped back, as though it was Gordon's fault the bodies had been taken and Gordon's fault that Cadmus didn't have a biological arm. As much as Gordon hated dealing with the Feds, he still wasn't able to say no to them. They had officially taken over the sniper case, and Gordon's hands were tied. Not that Batman seemed to care.

"What do you want me to do, the paperwork is legit, say no to the federal government?" The ensuing silence indicated that yes, that was exactly what Batman would have had him done. "Look, you'll get an autopsy report, I made Waller promise me when she picked them up."

That got his attention, and if you imagined it just enough, you could pretend you saw his ears perk up. Jim continued "Waller promised me I'd get a detailed autopsy from her on site doctors from, from wherever she took them. I got an email saying they will be ready in a few days." Batman's attention seemed to have shifted considerably and Jim was sure that Batman had only been half listening to him.

"Is the Doctor who did Two-Face's autopsy on tonight?" Batman asked, completely ignoring the autopsy report news. Apparently, he wanted to see it in person. "Do you still have any of the pieces of the stuff you pulled out his brain? What about the bullet from Zsasz?" He truly was a detective. Once one lead got squished you went in another direction. Now if only Gordon could get this guy in a uniform, he'd be able to solve cases and get the attorneys of his back about evidence collection.

"The doctor is off tonight, and that's down in the evidence room." Which Batman probably already knew the way to and how to open and take a look at what he wanted. One of these days they would have a security overhaul, but until then they would just have to make do with Batman deciding he wanted to look at things whenever he wanted. At least he put stuff back where it belonged and didn't mess with anything.

"Thanks Jim."

Gordon sighed, knowing he would be saying it to an empty room. "You're welcome."

* * *

 **23:30**

 **Wayne Manor**

 **Selina**

She had been about to go to sleep, when her phone rang. Recognizing the number from the night before, Selina had decided to let them listen to her voicemail. Then her work phone rang, which had the same number. They got to listen to her other voicemail that informed the caller she was out. There had been a blessed five minutes of silence, just enough time for her to doze off, when the phone started to buzz again, this time from a different number. It was still easy enough to ignore, but when they got to her room's extension and the landline in her room began to ring, then she had a problem.

"Can I help you?"

"Hello Kitty, you need to call the detective for me and-" she didn't hear what was after the and. She hung up on him, which probably wasn't something he was used to. It would rile up the stupid bastard and Bruce could deal with him, it was his problem now. Dracula wasn't her problem, but she would be a problem for him if he kept calling her kitty.

The phone rang eight more times before Selina had finally had enough.

"I'm not his fucking secretary. Stop calling me."

"Whose secretary? What man dare call you his secretary?" Oh, it was just Ivy. That was another call she would have rather not taken, but Ivy was a friend. Besides, it was nice enough that Ivy hadn't caused anymore issues the other day. If it had been anyone else, Selina knew she would have gassed him into doing the thing for Harley, then made him sign over a large amount of money.

"Just some weird guy who won't stop calling, thinking I'm Bruce's secretary, not his friend."

"Claw the creep's eyes out for me. So that's why you weren't picking up earlier. Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks for the other day, and since he was so nice, I left his car in a parking garage by his building, his keys are with the valet." Ivy must really be making an effort here. Selina was rightfully a bit suspicious, but maybe Ivy actually did want to be helpful. Despite the facts many things could bother Ivy, only a few got her to act this way.

"Oh," Ivy added on, "I saw an Arkham board meeting was scheduled for the end of this week as well as security inquires. Some part of Wayne Enterprises is going to do a complete sweep of their system, and since you help them out sometimes, I'm sure they will be able to find something"

That was as close of a thank you anyone would ever get from Ivy. Selina really hoped that Bruce would realize how lucky he was when she told him this story later. Selina didn't know what it was, but a lot of Rogues seemed to really like Bruce Wayne. Hell, even the Joker claimed he was a stand up guy, mainly because Bruce paid to have fixed whatever the Joker damaged or blew up when he was out. If they knew he was Batman, their face would be priceless.

"How's Harley?"

"Oh you know how she is." Ivy replied, meaning she was probably back to her usual bubbly self. "She's decided to redecorate and get a new apartment. Apparently her old one got rented out after she went back into Arkham."

"Does she have a theme yet?" Selina inquired. Harley always had to have a theme. The last one had been Modern, and she had gone with the ultra white and monochrome colors. Prior to that she'd had a cards theme, where she covered the apartment with things like Spades. Before that she'd have a thing for it looking like Blair Waldorf's home from one of her favorite tv shows. The list went on.

"Not sure. Pretty sure she's stuck between some kind of bohemian chick and something that she calls '50s vintage' or something like that."

It was nice to just talk, and she and Ivy discussed a number of things, none of them actually criminal related. People didn't seem to get it sometimes, but most of the Rogues in Gotham were friends. Just because they faced the bat alone didn't mean they didn't have get-togethers for thanksgiving, or other such things. Her circle had been with some of the top female Rogues, like Ivy and Harley. The Joker and the Hatter were their own one man show most of the time but Dent, Clayface and the Riddler bonded together. Penguin was friends with everyone. Some of the not as usual villains ran together, people like Strange, Firefly and Black Mask, all to complain Batman thought they weren't worth a complicated battle strategy.

"Well, if she throws a house-warming party let me know." Selina tried to stifle her yawn but Ivy wasn't fooled.

"Go to sleep Sel. We'll do something fun once you're all better" and Ivy clicked off. Something fun could mean a variety things according to Ivy, from going to a lecture at Gotham University about rare plants to robbing a bank. Maybe she would be able to talk Ivy into letting her pick.

* * *

 **0:15**

 **Arkham Asylum**

 **Dick**

Oh sure. Barbara got to be on the computer system while he got to be bait. How great and fantastic. Bruce was hiding somewhere around here, he'd said something about a records room but hadn't elaborated any farther. Just stuck him in a cell and said wait there and watch. Which wasn't really bait but it was the spirit of the assignment.

What dear old Batman had probably not anticipated, was the inmates. Even though they had managed to stick him in a cell without being caught, which quite frankly astonished Dick, not all the inmates went to sleep at night. Batman had assured him most inmates would be asleep, as all had some kind of sleep aid in their laundry list of medications.

Too bad Batman couldn't predict they hadn't given the Joker enough, because the man was re-creating Monty Python scenes. By himself. With himself playing all the parts. Occasionally he would do a scene over because he'd started giggling too hard right in the middle of them. Dick never needed to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail ever again. And he meant ever again.

So far the only human activity had been a guard making a sweep of the hallways. If you could even call it a sweep. All the guard had done was shine a light down the hallway and make sure no cells were open. This Ladies and Gentlemen, was the security that kept some very dangerous psychopaths from wreaking havoc on Gotham city. Now sure, the cells were reinforced with the best metal the world had to offer, had bullet proof glass, and were very tightly sealed. But it was the principle of the thing, Dick argued. He'd be sure to tell Bruce before he went to his meeting about it.

Dick wasn't allowed to go to the meeting, as much as he protested. He and Barbara had school, and besides, it would look odd for a junior in high school to know intimate details about Arkham's High Security Wing. Still, anything Dick could do to get out of school was worth it. He had been taught on the road as a kid, and his learning time had been flexible. He was far too energetic to sit in a classroom and hear Mr. Dimitri go on about world history for an hour. Honestly, why the man was a teacher Dick would never know or understand because he spoke in a soft monotone. Who knew you could make Genghis Khan and the Manhattan Project sound dull?

Dick was not a patient person, which was probably why he got to pull cell duty in the first place. Strict radio silence, all he got to do was sit there. What a joy. If he saw anything he wasn't even allowed to speak, all he got to do was push a button that would send a message to the rest of the team. Batman had suggested he meditate. Barbra had just laughed at his misfortune.

He'd still not gotten the courage to ask her to the dance yet, and knew he needed to soon, before she got asked by someone else. Alfred had not so subtly reminded him by making a calendar of the days leading down to the dance and left it on his desk, which he had also completely re-organized. Again. Dick honestly doubted Bruce knew at first, but when he had brought it up before meeting Barbara for their stake-out tonight, Dick knew he needed to get it together. If the guy who wasn't able to tell a woman how he felt or even who he was, for multiple years, was telling you to make a move, then you'd probably better make a move.

It was just so damn hard sometimes. Sometimes he thought Barbara felt the same way, other times he thought she didn't. He'd tried to feel her out but hadn't gotten anywhere. She didn't seem to flirt with any guys, not that he had seen anyway, but Dick wasn't a part of her circle of female friends. There was no way he could get an answer out of them without them telling Barbara what happened right afterward.

Then he had decided on a different approach, and tried to find out if any other guy was interested in her. To his annoyance there had been more than a few. Barbra was very pretty, and while Dick didn't have being on the debate team, or membership in the computer science club, or even a part of that community service group that helped the homeless, he was goddamn Nightwing. He'd saved her ass more than once as Robin, and they had been partners in a lot of things. They'd sparred together, snuck food from Alfred together, faced down the Joker together.

No matter how Dick approached it, he felt like she would most likely say yes to him. The problem was he wasn't sure of her reaction. What if he was wrong about all of it? What if she laughed at him? What if she said yes because she felt bad for him, not because she actually liked him.

Dick felt like an outsider in the ultra fancy private school. Even though he was there because of Bruce Wwayne, some of the kids didn't always treat him like he belonged. Early into his forays into school, he'd been called circus freak by some of them. They had stopped saying it to his face after he beat the crap out of one them, which Bruce had not been mad about at all and praised his behavior. Still though, it was hard even if at this point he was mostly accepted into the school. Kids of politicians, company owners and other such things filled his classes, yet he still felt like an outsider.

Time in the cape or at home was where he felt at ease. Maybe because it allowed him to blend parts of his life together, the acrobat he had been with his parents, and the crime fighter he became afterwards. He knew people sometimes gave him crap for the excessive flips, and the excessive puns he sometimes made, but he honestly felt the most at home in a costume.

If he was really philosophical or had taken down Hugo Strange lately, he would say it was because the mask allowed him to break free of his normal every-day expectations and allow his true self to emerge. Dick just liked to feel it was because being the super hero was important to him. Nightwing had been a concept he had thought about for a long time, and not just because he had gotten tired of being Robin. Robin was the boy-wonder. He was a man now, well almost anyway.

A soft scraping noise brought him out of his musings. Dick stayed silent, ever watchful as he waited for the source of the noise to appear. See, he could be patient. He quickly pushed the button once the figure was in sight. Tall, about six feet tall, thin but in a wiry sort of way. He was dressed in scrubs that were bright blue and impeccably clean, as well as wearing a hair mask and face mask. The figure looked like he was ready to walk into an operating room and begin operating.

"When does the Loony Doctor go mad?" Joker asked, speaking loudly. "WHEN HE RUNS OUT OF PATIENTS! HAHAHAHAHAHA"

Dick's job was to watch and wait, and then once the figure went away, to let Babs know. She would over-ride the computer system camera cover and follow his every move throughout the asylum. If Ivy had been right and Bruce was correct, the figure would walk straight into the trap.

Dick was just surprised they were this lucky. He'd been expecting to have to sit like this a few nights, but to catch the goon on the first night? Hell, if he was on a lucky streak maybe he should ask Babs out.

The figure was moving fast, having already passed Dick's "empty" cell and moved on to a cell farther down the line. It was only once the figure walked back past him that Dick was able to get a look at the unlucky Rogue. Edward Nygma. The Riddler. Not incredibly physically threatening, but when he decided he wanted something or he was going to plan something it was worth brushing up on obscure riddles to stop him for a moment to get control of whatever machine he had that time.

Dick knew his job was to wait and go in if he was needed. But damn it, he hated waiting around like a kid who was in time-out.

* * *

Hey! I just wanted to say thank you for reading and to those who reviewed. It really does mean a lot that people are reading and enjoying the story.


	13. Chapter 13

**01:17**

 **Arkham Aslyum, Arkham Island**

 **Bruce**

He'd gotten the notification from Batgirl the system was being tampered with, then the following message is was back online. Next came Nightwing's message, it was so weird to no longer think of him as Robin but as a person trying to grow up, that stated the mark had entered the high security wing, then exited with a brand new patient. Poor soul.

It wasn't that Batman had a lot of sympathy for the criminals of Arkham, he didn't. He knew better than anyone some people were incapable of change and rehabilitation. It was the fact that someone was using them for their own twisted purposes. Illegal was illegal, not matter how dreadful the victim and when he took up the Cowl he had vowed to defend all the people. Not just the ones he thought worthy, or worth saving. Once you started splitting those hairs, you never went back. That was not a road Bruce wanted to go down and he knew he would not like the person at the end of it.

The room was dark, which was fixed by his night vision lens, and while Bruce was safely hidden away in a hiding place, the hairs on the back of his neck still stood up. As a child, he had been ruled by fear. Afraid of the dark, new people, demons, monsters, axe-murder attacks, and of a shark somehow being put in the poll where he would meet his end via Jaws. It hadn't helped that his dear "friend" Tommy had constantly played pranks on him to scare him. Those had included things like a snake in his sleeping bag when they went camping, losing control of his bumper car so he would crash, or even ridiculous stories about a tall white figure called Slendermen. As an adult, he had set out to conquer his fears, one by one. He took back control of the dark, and in turn became the thing to fear in the night. He still saw things under Scarecrow's lovely concoctions, but it was no longer anywhere near as crippling as it had once been. A huge part of that recovery was thanks to getting doused with the gas and being forced to confront his fears, but he wasn't about to tell Scraecrow that. He'd have a field day.

The door slid open quietly, letting a small pool of light into the room that was quickly extinguished. A back-up light switch went on and the room was dimly lit. Back up lights only, to ensure only a small power-usage. Smart. Batman gently tapped his headset back into normal vision and sized up the figure in front of him. Roughly 6 foot, most likely male, not incredibly bulked up, fairly wiry. Hair color unknown, eye color unknown, ethnicity unknown. This figure was doing much better in disguises than most bank robbers. His suit looked like he was ready to begin an operation, which confoirmed Bruce's theory he had medical experience or science background.

Nygma was the unlucky patient of the evening, and the man wasted no time getting to work. Pulling vials of blood, cheek swaps, and running other checks. The figure didn't speak the entire time, not even pausing to take notes. It seemed he was commuting the numbers by memory. Or it wasn't a he at all.

Batman picked that moment to strike, waiting for the figure to turn back to Nygma before he moved into place. The slow creep that had been perfected over the years brought him closer and closer, until he was about three feet away. That was when the figure's head, just his head, wheeled around. "Hello Batman. My creator has been expecting you."

Batman did not get scared. But of all the things he had seen over the years, and trust him when he said a lot of things, this was up there in the more creepy events that had happened. Batman gave the robot a disapproving look, "Who do you work for? Who created you"

The rest of the body wheeled around to face him, everything covered Bruce realized, so it wasn't given away that he was a robot. It looked him up and down, as though scanning him. "Impressive." The metallic voice noted. "Truly a great specimen of human. Yes you'll do nicely."

"One last chance." Batman warned.

The machine simply moved away, taking multiple steps backwards away from him. Not about to start answering his questions. It may have been the thing's programming, but someone was clearly on the other end of the controls. Fine, he'd do this the hard way. Bruce went forward to grab the robot and pull off some components before a high-pitched whirring sound began. As a last ditch effort he grabbed the hand and yanked, pulling it off the machine and dove over Nygma as quickly as possible before the thing self-destructed.

Bruce felt the high surge of heat behind his cape, and as soon as it was safe to do so, began moving fast. First priority was Nygma, who was still out like a light. Second would be stopping the ensuing fire that would cause all the paper to burn up.

"Batgirl, Nightwing, I need a fire suppression in the record room." He growled in the microphone, ignoring the questions about what happened. "Never mind what happened. Just do it."

Batman heard the usual sounds of the Asylum going onto alert, as doors began to close off and seal to keep things contained. The Sprinklers reacted at that moment, though whether that was due to the smoke or Barbara setting the system off he wasn't sure. Once Nygma was out of the way, he moved back to the scene.

The sprinklers had taken care of most of it, only a few things still sparking that Batman happily stomped out. Most of it was charred cloth or records, very little was metal shrapnel. The thing seemed to have melted from the inside out, and even though he did not see anything on the scene, it would not hurt to get the stuff removed by Hazmat, just in case there was something going on. No point in getting cancer.

Putting up a notice to stay away from the scene until a proper cleaning crew could look it over, Batman then ran into one of his least favorite people. Dr. Arkham and the head Warden, Warden Sharp. Neither of them liked Batman, with Sharp hating that he brought in psychos to the facility and Arkham hating him for what he called "unresolved issues" and Arkham's general distaste for the costumed. Arkham had offered Batman therapy multiple times, which Bruce convinced was of course a ploy to get inside his head, and had been upset when refused. Maybe Alfred did have a point with the constant paranoia comments. Arkham was a much better Doctor than Strange, but Strange had still set the bar pretty low.

"What the hell happened here?" Sharp hissed, while Arkham had moved his attention fully onto Nygma, who he was checking over for injuries and for what happened. He appeared to be fine, but he was still fast asleep. Lucky guy.

"I'm saving your inmates from illegal medical experimentation Sharp." Batman hissed in return, while off in the distance he saw both Batgirl and Nightwing, waiting in the wings. Barbara had taken a copy of the system like he had asked her too, and it would be analyzed later. That way when the Wayne Tech people went over it to find improvements, Bruce could subtly point them where to look while pretending to be lost about the art of computer systems.

"That's Preposterous!" Sharp spit at him, spittle flying everywhere and red covering his normally pale face. "No one gets past my security. We even saw you come in." The fact Arkham rolled his eyes was not lost on Batman, who only gave a smile grin. Most people thought it was a grimace, but if you had run into Batman enough, and Sharp had, you would know it was a smile. Sharp seemed to go a few shades darker.

"Really?" Batgirl chimed in, holding up her USB drive. "I found evidence someone has not only tampered with your surveillance, but your keycard systems as well. This gave them the ability to be able to move patients in and out of the facility." Batman found it hard to not smile. Few people knew that Sharp was a sexist, and that the only thing that would ever really drive him more bonkers than masked vigilantes and villains, was women who were not afraid to put Sharp in his place when he needed it. Barbara was well aware of the fact, and happily looked as innocent and as helpful as possible.

"Impossible!" Sharp growled back. Sharp was gearing up for a transition to politics, and it simply would not do for him to look like he was losing control or was incompetent. He would fare terribly with the voters, keep Gotham safe? How could he keep Gotham safe if he couldn't even keep a guy like Riddler, who was one of the least physically intimidating Rogues out there, from breaking out? Whoever his opponent was would practically have their campaign written for them.

"Then explain Dent." Batman leveled. "Zsasz, Harley and Ivy. Now they went after Nygma."

"What did? There's no one in there! You went and let him escape you stupid useless brute." Sharp was reaching full on yelling now, echoing down the halls and sure to carry through-out the entire building. He then wheeled on Barbara. "You probably don't even know how the system worked do you? You think making things up will make them true and fit your little narrative? Well think again little girl." Barbara would have replied, or hit him, or both, if Dick had not put his hand on her shoulder, gently pulling her away from the angry man.

"Enough Quincy." Arkham snapped, sounding every bit as tired as he looked and sounded. "Nygma is just like Harley was complaining. She was right."

That made Sharp shut up, although he kept clenching and unclenching his fists, and his face did not go down from the cherry tomato red it was currently at. But Batman was interested. "You knew someone was experimenting on inmates and you did nothing?" The accusation in his voice was clearly there, and instead of going on the defensive Arkham's shoulders slumped.

"Dent got released as normal so we didn't think anything of it and it got passed off as a dream. He hated Doctors you know? Zsasz we thought just broke out. He wouldn't let any of our guys near him close enough to examine him. But once Ivy and Harley complained, showing up with proof, and Harley claimed she'd break out if it happened again, and then broke out, we knew something was up. I've been pulling these late nights to try and find a lead." Arkham explained, moving away from Nygma, who for some reason was still asleep. "I thought with increased security and changes in routines we would get closer to finding them. Staffing made that hard but we tried."

Batman didn't buy it for a minute. "Why not contact the police?"

Arkham shook his head, almost as though he pitied him. "On what grounds? Some patients think they are being visited in the night by a doctor? I'd get laughed out of here if the press caught wind and this place would go to someone who doesn't care about helping people, just making a quick buck." Jeremiah smiled sadly, "I thought we" he gestured to himself and Sharp, "could handle it. I was wrong."

Batman felt more at ease, though Jeremiah could not be dismissed completely. After all, he was the head Doctor here, and Batman knew all kinds of funny things could go down with someone willing to look the other way in the head doctor position. Strange had tried to even make mutants and revive the dead. That had been before his time as Batman, but stood out very sharply.

"Just call Gordon and a hazmat team." Batman instructed. Jeremiah looked pointedly at Sharp, who stalked off towards the security booth, muttering and waving his hands around. Bruce took the opportunity to move closer to Arkham, and began to ask him questions.

"The thing doing experiments was a robot. Do you know of anyone or anything who could pull that off?" He might as well have been asking Arkham to put him on the moon, for the man kept shaking his head, blonde hair becoming unkempt and lines sagging on his face.

"No." Jeremiah answered, "I can't think of anyone. It could be a criminal thing, but it's attacked someone from every social group that exists within their community, it has to be an outsider."

Batman nodded, it was what he thought too but it was nice to hear it in a different voice. Arkham was in a unique position to better know the comings and goings of Arkham and watch overall trends. "Anything else going on recently that's new?"

"No." Jeremiah sighed. "I've been pulling these hours not just for this but to ask for some things from the board, staff turn-over is very high and there's a few things an institution in California has implemented that I think would work well here. I've been trying to draw up all the proposals and research on it so I have a solid case before the board members." Batman listened intently, letting the man talk. Arkham opened a nearby closet and pulled out a crate to sit on, letting his head rest in his hands.

Batman wanted to join him. This was supposed to be a break through, not a step backwards to where he started. At least he had a hand?

* * *

 **10:30**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham city**

 **Alfred**

It was T-minus 3 days before the big party Martha wanted to throw to celebrate their return to normal life, and the manor definitely showed. There were people everywhere, from decorators to gardeners and everyone in between. It bothered him greatly. Bruce had always let him run the show when it came to these things, saying it was Alfred's domain and that he would mess it up somehow. Which he would. Martha however, had no such ideas, and was determined to do it all on her own.

Alfred had spent that morning running interference between the gardeners and Mrs. Wayne. The gardener claimed her expectations were "unreasonable and would look tacky." Alfred had done his best to create a thing the gardener liked and that Mrs. Wayne would like as well. That wasn't even the hard part. The hard part was making sure Mrs. Wayne didn't see it until the gardener was done so she couldn't change it. Sneaky? Maybe, but Alfred was determined to make sure this party went well and would be praised for its taste, not considered a throw-back, as much as he hated admitting it.

He had borrowed Selina and paired her up with Mrs. Wayne, giving the event planner explicit instructions to guide Mrs. Wayne to making an event that would be unparalleled. He'd even thrown in a few comments that party planning and making sure people wore and looked their best was right up her ally.

Selina made a curt remark about not needing to be bay-sat, but one glare and off she had gone. Besides, Alfred did not plan on it being her being baby-sat. Selina soon figured out Mrs. Wayne was cat person, and they talked over their mutual love of charity events. Selina went into great detail about some of the biggest events in the last years, and the kinds of things people wore to them. She had also somehow convinced Mrs. Wayne to go shopping with her, which even Alfred had not been able to. It was nice to make sure Selina wasn't sitting around feeling hurt and that Mrs. Wayne had someone who would happily guide her. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wayne had taken a clear shining to Selina, and already insisted she stay as long as she like.

That hadn't meant the questions had stopped being asked by Bruce's parents. Quite the opposite actually. Martha and Thomas were pressing him for more and more details, interested in the sudden shift in both Selina and Bruce's behavior. They'd gone from bickering like small children and making petty remarks to finishing each others' sentences and laughing at private things. Alfred had found himself pressing the gossip of the house, Master Dick, for details and he was as perplexed as the rest of them. Alfred had assured the worried parents they would learn when Bruce and Selina felt like sharing.

Alfred shook his head to himself. If there was anyone in the world who was as stubbornly irritating about things as Bruce was, it had to be Selina Kyle. A trait he had inherited from his father.

Thomas Wayne had shut himself up the library, happy to offer an opinion to Martha when she asked, which wasn't often. He spent the rest of his time studying. An academic at heart, he'd placed a large order for medical books, books about politics in the 21st century and on a large amount of technology. He'd sent a brief over to Lucius Fox, asking if he had any recommendations on a person to brief him on how the company had done in his absence. All of his absence.

If Martha Wayne was masking her pain with planning social events and catching up on all the town gossip, Thomas was studying anything and everything he could find. Under another circumstance it would be funny that Bruce turned out exactly like his parents in these regards. Typical avoidance maneuvers seemed to be something that was inherited. The barely eating, energy being channeled into whatever interested them, non-stop. They all manifested slightly differently but it was clear to someone who knew them as well as Alfred, everyone seemed to be hurting.

Hell, even Thomas ignored food like his son did. You could waltz in with a tray full of their favorite foods, which for Thomas Wayne was a certain kind of cookies along with a steak, and when a person returned to check on him hours later it would be untouched exactly where the butler put it.

Fortunately, Thomas was more talkative than his son in these moods and Alfred could get him to eat. It would not do to appear unwell.

"I brought your favorite Sir. Steak, steamed broccoli and those pastry cookies from England you like so much." Alfred's plan had been to treat them like nothing had changed, like it had been one giant jump forward. So far it seemed to be helping. Their search for a qualified doctor continued, as the FBI moved their background checks at a glacial pace.

"Thanks Alfred." Thomas didn't even look up from his book, which was about new forms of cancer treatment that had developed in the past twenty years. A legal pad was next to his book, with notes scrawled all over it. Like most of the medical profession, it was illegible.

Alfred did not instantly leave, choosing to stay and keep the man company. He would crack under pressure eventually and it only took Alfred fifteen minutes to get Thomas to do so.

"Can I help you old friend?" Thomas asked, having looked up from his work at last.

"Just noting your son does the same thing when something is bothering him." Alfred said pointedly, causing a loud sigh. The man was so much older than his portrait would indicate. He looked like he had aged more than twenty years, hair that was once dark brown without a streak of gray was now gray with streaks of dark brown. He seemed so much frailer, and like he was no longer able to play golf let alone keep up with the running he had been so fond of.

"I don't know what I expected to happen when we got back, but I'm not sure this is it." Alfred nodded along. Despite this being a dream come true, everyone was struggling with it and adjusting to the new normal.

"Any more from the Doctor whose profile you sent to be reviewed?"

Thomas sighed again, rubbing his temples with his fingers. "No. Bureaucracy is taking their sweet time. Some things never change I guess."

Alfred smiled a small smile, pulling one out of Thomas Wayne while he was at it. "Very true Sir. Now eat up. You know how much this party means to Martha."

Thomas Wayne groaned, pulling on his tie. The suit was too big for him, meant for a much bulkier man but until Thomas felt like shopping or Alfred could slip one that fit in his closet, the suits would be too big for him. Alfred made a few mental notes on a good probable size and to call an excellent suit maker in Gotham. Suit styles had not changed all that much, but it was still better to have a nice one than to not.

"Sir, I am going to schedule an appointment tomorrow for a suit fitting. You'll feel much better." No-nonsense. He'd learned how to use and apply that tone in Basic training a long time ago, and it got results. As a field medic he wasn't able to have had his orders questions, by anyone. Someone could die. So Alfred had adapted the tone and the stare, the one that Dick affectionally told him terrorized the criminals of Gotham as well as Bruce and Dick.

"Do I have to Alfred?" Thomas muttered, grinning underneath. At least there was proof his sense of humor remained intact after all this time, if only peaking out in little pieces now and then. Alfred was grateful because it meant that maybe Bruce would still get the father he was supposed to have grown up with, even if it was twenty years too late. It made him hopeful for the future.

"Well Sir, you don't have to do anything." Alfred quipped, "But I'm going to leave telling your wife you don't have a proper fitting suit up to you." Thomas made a groan and threw his hands to his chest as though Alfred's comment had wounded him and Alfred smiled again. Bruce had never been much of a jokester, that was always Dick's role. It was nice to have more than one person willing to make jokes.

"I suppose I ought to go do that. God forbid our marriage end over a bad suit." His tone was light and airy, but considering the circumstances held a darker undertone. It was a sobering reminder, that after all they had been through, scars remained.

Alfred quick to get off the subject, brought up the guest list. "We're going to have the Police Commissioner and his lovely daughter in attendance, you met her already, she's the girl Master Dick is absolute enchanted by. Also on the list are your old friends from college, Stefan Andrews is flying all the way in from Norway to attend, the Mayor and any elected Gotham official from city level to national will be here as well. Lucius Fox and his family are making an appearance as well as all the individual department chairs from Wayne Enterprises. The entire Wayne Foundation RSVP'd, James is still on the board you know." Alfred made an effort to distract him and it seemed to work. The man's brown eyes lit up at the mention of some of the names and Alfred knew Lucius would be lucky to get out of there in without having talked to the point of losing his voice.

The man still didn't seem convinced so Alfred tried to sweeten the deal. "You know the food is going to be good because we've picked out all your favorites. Included some of those cookies you like so much that you haven't seemed to eat yet."

Thomas threw his hands up in mock surrender and reached for the cookie, which was still soft despite having come out of the oven a good while ago. "Thanks Alfred. I don't know what we would do without you." Alfred privately beamed. Could anyone in this house?

* * *

 **2:30**

 **Gotham Preparatory Academy, Gotham City**

 **Dick**

They were both supposed to be in calculus right now. Keyword supposed to. But, as Barbara had so wonderfully explained, they both had high As in the class, it was a day they were going over a test both had gotten over a 90% on, and their teacher did not care whether her brightest students were in class or not. She had told them it was up to them to succeed in life, and they weren't going to have habits like going to class handed to them. Shout-out to Mrs. Matthews, the coolest 70-year-old math teacher to ever walk the face of the Earth.

The Arkham meeting had been fast-tracked due to the events of the previous night, and Batman and Jeremiah Arkham had left them quite a laundry list of things both individuals found lacking. Personnel numbers were one, the institution had a hard time keeping staff, though when you had people like Joker and Mr. Fries in there to freak you out, Dick didn't exactly blame them. Number Two was the outrageous security breaches, the card used to gain access to the system happened to have been from a dead ex-employee. There could be the most wonderful system in the world, and Wayne Tech was certainly willing to come up with whatever system the Asylum needed, and none of it mattered if people had access who weren't supposed to. This involved the getting in and out of the high security cells, because to quote Bruce "Someone should notice when people aren't supposed to be in a cell" and with Zsasz's disappearance not being noticed for hours, something had to give in that department, via more cameras or more sensors.

Barbara, being the lovely partner in crime-fighting she was, had asked Bruce to record the meeting on his laptop so she could watch it later. She adored systems, and it was one of the only things she and Selina Kyle agreed on. Dick knew privately that Bruce had anticipated them watching in on the meeting, and probably had some kind of special punishment waiting for them for watching it during school. Maybe he'd make them do gargoyle watch duty, where you watched a set of gargoyles to see if they moved. Alfred seemed to find those kind of punishments funny. Something about sharing the experience.

The pair had slipped into an empty room where there was no class on Tuesday, and set the laptop up. They had made sure to both bring head phones to listen in, and to make sure any passerby would not have them awkwardly explaining how they got access to Bruce Wayne's laptop.

"Ready?!" Barbra beamed, she was really cute when she got excited over technical stuff. If Dick didn't know better, he would swear she loved doing the technical side of things over patrolling the streets. Selina seemed to be the same way.

"You bet." Dick answered affirmatively, and while the meeting began to drone on with introductions, speeches from medical staff and other boring things they already knew, Dick thought back to his current predicament. It was nearing closer and closer to the time of the dance, and Dick, instead of feeling more confident got more nervous.

Dick crashed back to Earth when Barbara poked him in the ribs. Hard. "Wake up Blunder Boy, you'll miss it." She excitedly turned back to the screen only to see the screen go dark. Barbara muttered swear words Alfred would have his hide for saying, and groaned in frustration. "Bruce kicked us out."

Barbara pouted a few minutes before their phones both buzzed. The words, "Why aren't you in class?" popped up, from an unknown number that Bruce occasionally used to get their attention. Dick groaned along with Barbara this time, just envisioning the tasks they would get to do for this rule break.

"How does he always know?" Barbara demanded, more from her phone than anyone else.

"Because he's you-know-who." That got her to smile. Barbara was a huge Harry Potter fan, and had taken to calling Batman and Bruce, you-know-who in conversation. It had started one night when they had spent a long patrol on stakeout and had gotten to talking about how Batman seemed to appear when someone said his name. Dick had joked it was magic, and from that point forward Barbra had insisted on using you-know-who so they couldn't be tracked. At the time Dick had been joking but with his recent field trip to Fairfax, he wouldn't even be surprised.

"Hey," he started again, while Barbara carefully packed her laptop away. "I was wondering, are you going to the dance that's coming up?" There he said it. The words were out there. There was no taking it back. Do or die Grayson.

"Yeah." She looked up at him, still packing her bag up. "Why?"

Why? Woman because I'm asking you on a date that's why Dick thought internally. He paused a moment to consider his response. "I just thought it would be fun to go together and since the masquerade costumes were supposed to match we could have the same costume and stuff."

Lame. Dick Grayson was lame and shitty at asking girls out. Barbra seemed to read his mind, like she did so many times. She giggled at him "Are you asking me to the dance Dick Grayson?" Dick suddenly felt really sorry for Bruce, having read with Barbara the log where a similar situation had occurred with Selina Kyle, with some very similar word play.

Determined to show up his mentor and father figure, Dick pushed his shoulders back, bowed and began again. "I, Mr. Dick Grasyon would love to know if the wonderful Miss. Barbara Gordon would happily accompany him to the dance." Dick reached out and took her hand, giving it a kick kiss. Barbara laughed some more and said the magic words he wanted to hear.

"Of Course. But I get to pick the colors. No negotiating"

* * *

Hi everyone, I was in a super creative mood this week and have a busy few weeks coming up so I don't know how much I will be able to write. As always, thanks for reading and following along.


	14. Chapter 14

**20:00**

 **Wayne Manor Ballroom, Wayne Manor**

 **Bruce**

He hated events like this. They were too long, too complicated and he didn't even have the excuse he was tired and wanted to go home to fall back on. Bruce had spent the last hour and a half walking around, asking people how things were and pretending to care that their daughter couldn't find a date for her debutante ball or their business. He knew better than to volunteer Dick to be some girls date, and had been able to pretend to be interested about the meat-packing industry. Apparently, the FDA was going to come out with new regulations soon and the industry was taking a hit until they were announced.

Dick was sitting down at a table with Barbara, happily oblivious to the stares of those around them. Something had shifted between them and they were even closer somehow. He'd told them no PDA in costume and to not do anything stupid. Dick had flushed red, for once speechless while Barbara nodded along. Bruce was happy for them, just not looking forward to the inevitable times they had a fight. While he could compartmentalize his feelings in the suit, he wasn't sure the extent both of them could. The last thing he needed was for them to do something stupid at a critical moment.

A playful tap on the shoulder and the words "Aren't they adorable?" announced Selina's presence. Bruce reached around to take her hand, guiding her to his line of sight. She was wearing the dress from the other night, although in a different color, the dark green matching her eyes perfectly. He couldn't really describe the change that had taken place between the two of them either, but it had been for the better. All he knew was that things were good, better than they had been, in well, ever really.

Bruce had made an effort to keep her up to speed, and given her access to the current investigation notes. He knew she appreciated it, and had found her perusing the files at all hours of the day. She was actually incredibly helpful with the Arkham discussion, pointing out tiny security flaws she saw here and there. Her work was invaluable, as well as her advice on getting the FBI's current files on his parent's disappearances.

There was unfortunately not much. All it seemed that have happened to his parents was a period of prolonged, extreme isolation. They hadn't been tortured or anything, but survived off small portions of food as well as being holed up in a secluded area. The terrain sounded like the Appalachians, but it was hard to tell for sure.

There was a large amount of private property in the Appalachians he would have to use drones to fly over and map, but the biggest land-owner was the US Government. Lots of parks and recreation areas, and with all the moving around and terribly built shelters they had been moved around to, that could be a distinct possibility.

They had been placed on a cargo train after days of forced hiking and walking, one that ran north-south. From there they had arrived in Gotham and were moved out by a branch of a human trafficking network. Small time players, no big names and didn't even know who or what they had. After that who knew where they were bound to go? The perpetrators running the show had either lawyered up and refused to answer questions or claimed they had no idea who the investigators were talking about. Given that their names weren't on the manifest of people the gang was expecting, that seemed plausible. Either way, Batman couldn't touch them in a Federal detention center, where they were being held until their trial dates. So he had to comb the mountains. It was already taking a terribly long amount of time, as well as syncing previous satellite fly-overs to see if he could match any dates and times, look for a pattern, a starting point, anything.

"Hey." Selina poked him in the ribs, very much enjoying the fact he wouldn't dare poke her back for fear of hurting her. "Where'd you go?" she asked playfully, smile fading when she followed his gaze to his mother.

"Bruce." She stepped right in front of him and grabbed his head so he was forced to look her in the eyes. "We'll figure it out. If anyone can it's 'the great and mighty Detective.'" Bruce groaned and she laughed. Selina enjoyed teasing him about Ra's, and she enjoyed irritating Ra's as well. She'd gotten revenge for his incessant calling, and had over-run his guards with packages. Ra's, being the paranoid individual he was, required all packages go through a rigorous amount of testing to ensure they contained no explosives, bio or chemical weapons or any other nasty surprises. All that was in the boxes was the note "I'm not his fucking secretary." Ra's had insisted she stop, but Bruce asked him to apologize to her. There had not yet been an apology, so there had not yet been a cessation of boxes.

"I wish you wouldn't push his buttons." Bruce said seriously, "Once he gets Talia back he'll be back to assassin leader hell-bent on ruling the world in his evil-manic twisted way in no time at all."

"But until then," She smiled mischievously, which both Batman and Bruce knew was a sign she had something else up her sleeve. "It wouldn't hurt to learn some manners."

He had to admit it, someone dishing it back to Ra's in such a manner was funny. Bruce had always gone to be diplomatic, convincing himself and hopefully Dick that they were above such things. After all, they didn't do things like send the Joker "get well soon cards" or send Ivy flowers. Bruce couldn't understand what it was about Ra's that got under people's skin so much, but whatever it was, it drove people to some interesting lengths.

Ra's for his part had gone into the Iceberg lounge and put up a large reward for Talia. That had attracted enough attention, but he'd also said there was an extra bonus if a rogue found her before Batman did. He'd been rather amused by the amount Cobblepot had priced his cowl at, and said "Only worth that much? That's not even worth hiring someone for." That had started a fight, and he'd gotten kicked out of the Night Club, but not before Cobblepot had taken some serious hits to his self-esteem and his men took some serious hits to the ribcage. Ra's was faster and much stronger than anyone gave him credit for.

"No it wouldn't" he answered and she smiled at him again. They were on new footing as Bruce and Selina, but the same footing they had been on for a long time as Batman and Catwoman. It had been surprisingly comfortable and easy to transition into. "But enough about grumpy old men. What would you like to do tonight?"

"Rob Cartier's." She smiled at his glare, reassuring him she was only kidding. "But dancing could be fun."

"I thought you were still supposed to take it easy." Bruce questioned. Granted, she had spent a week in the hospital and then had spent two and a half weeks at Wayne Manor, and her doctors insisted she was making fine progress but was not close to fully recovered, that would be at about six weeks out, if she was a fast healer.

"Dancing is taking it easy." She smiled at him again "Compared to all the other things we could be doing." Bruce flushed slightly, getting her full meaning and she laughed at him again. She had such a pretty laugh. "Now come on handsome, show me that Wayne charm. I like this song."

Bruce shook his head slightly but lead her to the dancefloor anyways, being very gentle with the hand around her waist, even though her injury was on the other side of her body. He saw more than one person taking notice, Dan Humphrey for example, pretend socialite but also secret author of one of the biggest gossip columns in the US took note. As did Avery Carlyle who had made a determined effort to appear at a large amount of his parties while he was in highschool and throughout his early twenties, they'd even briefly dated once when he'd thought he'd need a playboy image to distract the world.

He'd gently taken her hand and began to move with her, following in time to music. His parents had insisted he learn as a child, something Alfred had agreed with them on. It came in handy in times like this, but if he had told his nine-year-old self that, his young self would have scoffed at him.

Selina leaned in "So Dick finally asked Barbara. Maybe you taught him something about women after all." She was doing it purely to get a rise out of him. It worked.

"I got you didn't I?" and she rolled her eyes, clockwise like she always did when she was pretending to be annoyed at him. It made him smile, something he'd been doing a lot lately. Batman was famous for his brooding and uncheerful demeanor, but the moodiness really came from Bruce. Bruce had not had a large number of things to be happy in life, and while he had not been unhappy at his parents' arrival, he had certainly not been the same kind of joyful he was now. His parents were back, he had Selina, Dick was growing up to be a wonderful young man. Now all he needed was for the criminals in Arkham to want to rehabilitate and to solve this mystery and life would fully be perfect.

"Shut up and dance Handsome." She hissed gently at him, catching him lost in though again, and he laughed at her for once.

"What, not a fan of talking and dancing?" She glared at him and he wisely dropped the prodding. He realized, albiet a bit belatedly, that the night had probably taken more out of her than she was letting on, and he would do well to not aggravate that by making her feel like she had to push herself to keep up appearances. The song ended thankfully, and a "I'm going to get us a drink, come on" got them off the dance floor. She didn't object, which Bruce took as him being right.

Prior to the event, the manor had filled up with scents he now realized he had associated with his childhood. Certain types of hor d'oeuvres that had only made appearances at Wayne functions had been made, along with a certain kind of flower his mother liked that the home smelled like. He'd brought Selina over to an area that functioned as the make-shift bar, and asked for water for himself and whatever the lady wanted.

"Water for me as well." She asked politely and the bartender turned to back into the kitchen area to grab some more, as he had recently run out. It didn't escape his notice that she leaned a bit heavier on the counter than usual, as though she was trying to hide it.

"We can always get out of here early if you don't want to be here anymore."

"Now who's being presumptuous?" Bruce lightly flushed again, but was saved from answering by the arrival of the bartender, who put the glasses down in front of both of them, who were too busy paying attention to each other.

"I have a joke." The bartender announced in a familiar voice. "Now stop me if you've heard this one before."

The couple wheeled around, instantly paying attention to the man. He had on a baggy white jacket, which he took off to reveal his signature purple. The hate came off as well, revealing a tangled mop of green hair. The face, pale as always, was full of a grin and the dark eyes started manically.

"What do you call a basement full of women?" He looked between the two of them stricken, and Bruce carefully found his voice. You never could tell with the Joker what he was going to do.

"I don't know." Bruce answered, flatly, never taking his eyes off the figure. He had to find some way to alert Dick and Barbara, and to get Selina out of here. Did he even know she was Catwoman?

"A WHINE CELLAR" The Joker shouted, catching the attention of everyone around him, and caused massive panic. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He giggled, and jumped on top of the bar with one leap. "LADIES AND GENTLEFREAKS, HUMANS OF GOTHAM, I AM TONIGHT'S ENTERTAINMENT!" he pulled out a gun and fired it into the air in the direction of the crowd, releasing a massive amount of confetti.

Bruce snorted, having always made sure to laugh at the Joker since Batman never did. Hopefully it helped keep the clown off his trail. The Joker beamed at him. "Why hello there Brucie Boy. You look good. Sorry to hear old Twofers shot at ya, he never saw the humor in you anyways." Whatever the hell that meant.

Joker's attention rapidly shifted to Selina. "Well hello there Beautiful." Selina would have responded if Bruce hadn't pulled her a bit away, not wanting her to get into trouble with the unpredictable man. He couldn't help it, she'd yell at him for it later that she didn't need protection, she always did when he made an effort at protecting her, but the last time this happened she'd gotten stabbed. He was not about to take that chance.

"Why are you here Joker?" Bruce asked, politely as he could muster with the Joker. A few people gasped, but the Joker didn't get upset. He'd always seemed to like Bruce Wayne for some weird reason. Bruce couldn't figure it out, but wasn't above using it to play to his advantage.

"Well Brucie, I heard your parents were back in town and wanted to say hello. Let them know what a good young man they'd gone and not raised. I mean, with all that work you did on that hospital after I blew it up? Not just anyone does that kind of thing, most people would have left it there. Let it turn into rubble, or a dog-food factory or something silly like that."

Bruce instantly suspected a set-up like the previous ones, but the Joker didn't seem to be straying from his normal behavior. If he had normal behavior in the first place.

Apparently so did Gordon, who was standing in front of his parents, gun drawn and was ordering the clown to surrender.

The Joker looked hurt. "Awww come on Jimmy. I'm not going to do anything funny, I just wanted to meet the Waynes. My stand up routine will debut at the Opera next week, be there or be square." The Joker giggled again and waved at the Waynes, who looked stone faced at the man in front of them. The lack of response irritated him, and he snapped, yelling again. "Oh come on, it wouldn't kill you to say hello."

"Hello?" His mother asked hesitantly, while the Joker smiled and nodded.

Quick as a wink he pointed his gun at Thomas Wayne, ignoring Gordon's gun completely. "Aww, I see your son only got his charm and grace from his mommy. Your turn sunshine man."

That would be the moment Nightwing showed up, shattering a window on the third story and dropping into the crowd before Joker. Selina quietly muttered "Show-off" next to him, and Bruce would have been amused if the Joker was not standing in his home, pointing a gun.

Joker, his attention completely stolen by Nightwing, clapped his hands together. "Ohh Ohh! I knew it! I knew Baby-Bird had a new suit. Harley was right, he does look pretty hot in it doesn't he boys and girls?" the crowd, sensing the game to play was to nod at whatever Joker said, his attention divided between Bruce, his parents, and now Nightwing.

"Hey Joker" Nightwing called, getting the man's full attention. "What do you call someone obsessed with Batman, who isn't funny and is about to get his ass sent right back to Arkham?"

The Joker playfully thought for a moment before his mood shifted completely at the mention of Arkham. "Go ahead and put me in there, the Doctor won't come after me. Said I was useless. He didn't even know the average velocity of an unladen swallow."

Dick seized the moment while he was distracted, moving closer carefully, drawing a batarang from his side as stealthily as possible. "What do you mean, an African or a European swallow?" causing the Joker to start into a fit of giggles before bound by ropes and thrown onto the floor by Dick. Gordon, having already called for backup quickly moved on him the second the gun was away from him. Despite being handcuffed in front of horrified party goers, the man seemed unphased. As usual.

Still giggling as Gordon pulled him away along with the other GCPD officers who had provided security for the event, the Joker remarked "How is it you have such a sense of humor but old Batsy doesn't? Oh speaking of Batsy, can you call him for me Jimmy? I need to report a missing person. Her name is Harley Quinn, the W in her name is silent, and she was taken by Poison Ivy. Bitch stole my girlfriend, so you'll need to charge her with theft too."

The men, trained to not pay any attention to the psychopath, ignored him and dragged him out the door way. "Nice party Brucie! You seemed to have misplaced my invite though. But for you I'll let it slide, as long as you keep fixing up hospitals!" Was shouted from the hallway before the doors shut.

Relief waved over everyone, and Nightwing picked the chaos to begin scanning the area for any other dangerous individuals or objects, silently making his way to the area Joker entered. Emergency Personnel were trickling in, and calming the people down.

Bruce made his way over to his parents, who were being comforted by the Lannisters, another family that had had their party ruined by the Clown Prince of crime. Selina was right by his side the entire way, guiding Mrs. Wayne to sit down.

Bruce's father for his part was outraged. "How dare he come in here and speak to me that way." Mr. Lannister was calmly agreeing with him, while Bruce just grimaced.

"We got off lightly. He doesn't seem to have killed anyone." Bruce remarked, thankful for at least that. He was dying to know what Gordon was going to do about him, especially since apparently he'd already been targeted by the mysterious doctor. But he wasn't able to do that right now. He gently nudged his father. "We should say our good-byes to those who are leaving."

His father looked incredulous at the idea, but some remarks about it being a good social etiquette in today's society of super criminals, got him moving and bringing Martha with him, who for her part had sufficiently calmed down, though whether it was Selina's breathing technique or Xanax that got her to calm down was undetermined.

Some guests had already trickled out the door, but they spent another half hour saying good bye to everyone. Selina had gone off saying she would go find Dick and allow Barbara to spend the night since her dad would be busy working, but had yet to return.

* * *

 **22:15**

 **Special Interrogation, One Police Plaza, Gotham Downtown**

 **Jim Gordon**

What a hell of a night. Things couldn't go smoothly or well in this city for one goddammn night could they? No, freaks had to break out of Arkham, crash parties to tell jokes and for their own sick amusement. The Joker didn't even seem to care they were upset he broke out of Arkham, and treated his outburst like he'd taken an evening stroll. It made Gordon's skin crawl.

The only reason the Joker had not gone to Arkham, as in directly to Arkham do not pass go and do not collect two hundred dollars, was because of his mention of the mysterious doctor. Most people assumed it was him blathering on or it was another attempt to discredit Dr. Arkham to the city. Gordon knew it was neither, and that for once the clown was a victim. A witness he needed to interview in order to solve this case. Was it opposite week or something?

For his part, the Joker found being a witness interviewee hilarious, and made Jim Gordon reconsider all the choices he had made in life that got him to this point. Starting with taking this job in the first place.

"So Jimmy," the Joker addressed him as if they were old friends, meeting up for coffee. "I heard you're looking for this doctor fellow. Not his robot, but the actual sicko." Gordon forced himself to nod, and the Joker seemed pleased with himself, grinning to reveal his crooked teeth. His pale fingers drummed on the table, causing his handcuffs to rattle. It set Gordon's teeth on edge, something the Joker seemed to relish.

"Is Batsy here? I'd love to say hello." The Joker asked, quickly changing the subject. The interview had not gone as Gordon had wanted so far. He'd seem to get close to getting the Joker to talk about his experience, and then the man went off on a tangent. Many many tangents.

"I'm sure Nightwing has let him know." Gordon said neutrally, knowing one wrong move would cause the man to come completely un-hinged. Gordon was not stupid enough to believe they had the Joker, the Joker had come here because he wanted to. He wanted something out of this encounter, and it was up to Gordon to make sure it didn't involve death and destruction.

The Joker shook his head and clicked his teeth at Gordon. "Birds can change feathers, but under that blue bluster he's still the boy blunder. No one changes their insides you know. Not without some heavy science voodoo. The Doctor knows all about that." Gordon nodded which seemed to appease the Joker. The man was still incredibly calm, even though Gordon knew better than to be lulled into a false sense of security. He was still afraid that all of a sudden something would start exploding or that things would go haywire.

A knock at the door pulled both men out of their thoughts, and an officer peeked his head in. The Joker waved cheerfully, which unnerved the new rookie, but he kept his composure enough to announce to Gordon he had a guest on the roof.

"Ohhh Bring him down here! I need to say hi!" The Joker insisted. Jim gave him a withering look, which only made the Joker smile even more, revealing all his teeth in a caricature of a grin. "Pretty Pretty Pretty Please Jimmy-boy? I didn't kill anyone. Can't I at least get a reward?"

Gordon didn't bother to answer him, instead choosing to check over the restraints one more time to make sure there was nothing the Joker could use to escape them. He wasn't going to get grilled by city hall for leaving something the Joker could use to escape with in the madman's reach.

Gordon did not need to have bothered, the door opened and the big shadow he was familiar with fell over the room. This was unusual, and knowing Batman was very concerned, to the point he'd walk in the police station and conduct an interview for the first time in front of Gordon, made it sink in a bit just how bad this probably was.

"Batsy! You came! I knew you cared deep down!" Joker crowed enthusiastically, looking between the masked vigilante and Gordon. Batman didn't respond but Jim liked to imagine he narrowed his eyes behind the lens that protected his eyes. The Joker gestured at the chairs in the room, chains that held him in place making an awful clanging noise against the table. "Take a seat Sir and Gentlebat. We have a lot to take about."

The last thing Gordon wanted to do was indulge this freak, but Batman carefully sat down. Police work often required doing things you didn't want to do, sometimes to get justice, you had to get down and dirty. Sometimes, you had to deal with some of the worst in order to get to someone even worse. In this case, to find out who was targeting Arkham patients, they needed to get the Joker to talk. Again, what a world.

"I understand you know about who has been targeting high security patients at Arkham Aslyum." Ahh Batman. Straight and to the point. His tone was neat, clipped, and it seemed very clear to Gordon he was willing to walk away from this encounter if he didn't get what he wanted. "I also understand, you broke out of Arkham to tell us this."

"Pshhh. So formal. Jumping right into business as usual. Boy Blunder looks good. I like the new suit." Batman didn't dignify his questions with a response. Batman's hands were on the table in front of him, his palms face down. His face gave away nothing, and as Gordon pulled up a chair next to the man, and in turn stared the green haired man down.

"Oh fine." The Joker mumbled. "Humph, you're no fun. You never are."

"This isn't supposed to be fun" The deep gravelly voice spoke before Gordon could say anything. Internally he resigned himself to playing second fiddle to this interview and started writing on his notepad, keeping them well out of the Joker's reach. Not that it mattered, the Joker didn't even seem to realize Gordon was in the room anymore. His entire focus was on the man dressed in black.

"No." The Joker admitted, a brief moment of sanity seeming to peek through. "No it's not funny at all." He was quiet a moment before he piped back up. "It's only fun for the Doctor."

"Tell me about the Doctor." Batman insisted while Gordon nodded along, taking notes as the two spoke.

"The robot was decoy. He knew you were coming. He thinks like you, you see. He was waiting for you, testing you, getting close enough to observe" Joker explained very matter of fact. It made sense, and that's when Gordon officially put things on shit-had-hit-the-fan mode. When the Joker was explaining things and potentially helping the GCPD, it had to be ugly. "He's just making test runs you see, and who better to experiment on then society's worst?!"

"How do you know this?" Gordon inquired, beating Batman to the question. The man turned his complete attention on Gordon.

"Because. He got mad his stuff didn't react with me. He thought it would work. I already have super powers you see."

"Superpowers?" Batman's tone was a bit incredulous, not that Gordon could blame him. It seemed like a horrible idea, whether you believed Arkham patients were disposable or not. The tough guy demeanor on Batman had cracked a little, something that caused the Joker grin.

The Joker nodded, pleased he finally had Batman's full attention. "He didn't really explain, too busy stabbing me with new serums and stuff, but that's what he was trying to do. Make weapons out of people." The Joker tilted his head to the side, and fully focused on Batman again. "I'd watch out if I were you. He's pretty strong."

"I'll keep that in mind." Batman said crisply, if he was disturbed by what he had learned he did not show it. The mask went back up. "Will you be safe to go back to Arkham?"

The Joker rolled his eyes. "Duh. It's you who should be worried Batsy. Speaking of Bats, why did the Batman cross the road?" The seriousness had faded away, and the joking was back full force. Gordon was tempted to roll his own eyes but knew what a bad idea that was.

"I think we're finished here. If you have anything else to tell us, please calmly go and inform the Arkham staff." Batman stood up and turned to leave, causing the Joker to jump to his feet, the chains keeping him in place pulled taunt as they strained to keep him in place.

"The Batman crossed the road because the Doctor was right under his nose. He just didn't see it." The calm manner was gone, and made wide eyes started at the dark figure, hands straining and trying very hard to get out of the cuffs.

"I'll keep that in mind." Batman said neutrally, which seemed to calm him down considerably.

"You need to stay around Batsy. You're the only fun one in this city."

"We'll get you transferred over as soon as possible." Gordon noted, re-entering the conversation, not that the Joker acknowledged him at all. He seemed content to start talking to himself again, re-enacting the Spanish inquisition scene from Monty Python to an empty room. Batman had already snuck out of the room and was waiting for Gordon outside.

"What. The. Hell. Was that about?" Gordon demanded, leaving the mad man to pretend he was John Cleese.

Batman didn't answer him, just looked at him, his lips pressed into a thin line, and his hands were balled up into fists, but he didn't seem to notice. He was lost in his own thoughts, and was not paying attention to the police commissioner.

"Batman?" Gordon asked, now slightly worried. The man stared him down, quiet as ever. "What does he mean?"

"I'm not sure." Batman replied frankly, which unsettled Gordon deeply. "I have a lead though."

"Don't do this alone." Gordon blurted out, as usual getting no visual feedback. "You'll need backup."

Batman turned and walked away before responding, almost before he turned down the hall to escape. "Thanks" was the last thing he said, almost too quiet for Gordon to hear it.

"You're welcome." Gordon said, to an empty hallway, the silence penetrated only by the sounds of repeated screaming "NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!" punctured with fits of giggles.

* * *

Hi everyone, university has really been kicking my ass and as every student knows, finals is coming up. Yay, not really. In addition to exams I have several big projects and papers so this may be the last update for a while. As always, thank you all so much for reading and for following along. It means a lot to me as a writer that people read my work.


	15. Chapter 15

**11:00 AM**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Selina**

To say last night had unsettled everyone was an understatement. One similar to the statement that the crown jewels of Ireland were a pretty good score or that Isis didn't really like getting bathes, not to mention Isis was an unfortunate name given recent world events. Mrs. Wayne had recovered fairly quickly at the mention in the day's paper she and Mr. Wayne had superb hosting skills to keep such calm after the Joker crashed their party. Made more impressive by the fact they had never seen a Joker attack go down before, made the achievement even better. Mr. Wayne had gone off to a study room in the manor to study the clown, going over the medical history. He was not a Doctor of the mental state, but still find the clown medically fascinating.

Barbara had spent the night, and much to Selina's amusement Alfred had put tape over both of their doors to check if either snuck out at night. She wasn't sure if that had been something Alfred came up with or Commissioner Gordon insisted, nevertheless both seemed quite put out by the idea. She knew they had spent the hours instead conversing over the phone after their official bedtime, offering numerous theories on the appearance, complaining about the unfairness of it all, and discussing more of their theories about the entire thing.

Selina hadn't known when Bruce came back in, she'd fallen asleep in the cave waiting for him. The last time she remembered seeing was 5 something, so it must have been late. She woke up to the surprise of him carrying her to her room and had managed to give him a scratch on his bicep for his troubles. She'd have to apologize for that, if he even remembered it. Bits of black and blue peeked out from under his tank, and there was more than one spot with a bandage over it. He'd been pushing himself hard lately.

Yes, things were still unsettled indeed.

Alfred remained the pillar of normalcy for the house, making breakfast as usual, though considering what he had been through that wasn't exactly a surprise. Same time he came by to give her that morning's medication with the exact way she liked her tea prepared at the exact temperature she liked it. The more time she spent around Alfred, the more she realized where some of the Bat habits came from. The drive for perfection, having things arranged just so, the attention to even minute details, Alfred discovering how she liked tea was very similar to how Bruce had picked up her favorite places to rob, seemingly by reading her mind. The disapproving glare was where she saw it most, having witnessed the glare when both Bruce and Dick had tried to weasel their way out of going out to dinner one night. It was funny now, having been on the end of that glare so many times only to see that it was used on the Batfamily on a regular basis by the man who kept them all functional human beings.

"Can I get you anything Miss Kyle?" speaking of Bat traits, they had to have gotten the sudden appearing behind you from Alfred too. There was just no explaining it.

"Is Bruce awake yet?" She asked, turning to face the Englishman. He seemed to have looked the same for the years she had known him, graying hair, dark brown eyes and a blank facial expression. "I have a theory or two I'd like to go over with him."

The man nodded slightly, indicating he understood exactly what she was referring to. "I believe he was last in his study, shall I call him and double check?"

"No Alfred that won't be needed."

He nodded and seemed to sink back into the shadows of the house, another bat trait he had, going off to do, well whatever Alfred did. She wasn't sure and she wasn't sure that any of the house's other occupants did either.

Selina set off to go bother Bruce. She was flanked by Isis, who had taken to following her around. She had been quite put out the night before when she was stuck up in Selina's room, used to being able to wander all over the manor. Fortunately for Selina, Isis was one of the few cats who sucked at giving the silent treatment and curiosity at re-exploring her territory and all the new scents in it won out over pouting.

She tapped lightly on the dark wood door, and without waiting for a yes or no entered inside. Bruce was slumped over a desk, usually organized, that was now covered with various papers and a few maps. That wasn't the only thing out of order, his normally irritatingly perfect appearance was messed up too, everything from pieces of his hair not perfectly pushed back to wrinkles in his dark long sleeve shirt, the one he wore to cover his injuries despite it being a toasty day. When he looked up he could see just how much he was pushing himself, lines surrounding his eyes and the dark circles under them reminding her of a racoon.

"Do you need something Selina?" he asked, not even meaning to be rude. He was clearly overwhelmed.

"Just offering to help, I have a few ideas of my own." Isis had gone over to weave her way in between Bruce's legs, showing off to Selina that he was the new favorite in her heart. Bruce for his part gave her a few scratches on the head before returning his attention to Selina.

"That would be nice." He must have really hit a wall if he was admitting he couldn't figure it out on his own. Though maybe it was the sleep deprivation talking, he didn't look like he'd slept since he put her in room.

"Good." Selina replied, pulling up a chair to sit next to his tall leather office chair. Isis jumped up in her lap, if only to get close to her new human of choice. "Did the clown give up anything useful?"

Bruce sighed, which meant no. "No he didn't, although," Bruce trailed off, lost in thought for a few moments. "He seems to know a lot more than he's willing to tell."

"How so?" The joker playing games was not unusual, hell every time Penguin tried to do something at the Ice Berg to inspire friendliness and camaraderie between the rogues, the Joker found a way to turn it into some ugly prank on whoever he was mad at the moment. He'd sent Ivy dead roses for twelve days for the Rogue Secret Santa, he sent Strange a ton of horribly written self-help books, Selina's favorite title had been How to Offend a Women in Five Syllables or Less by a Dr. Rogers, and he'd also brought in a few polar bears from the Gotham Zoo and tried to sic them on Penguin's penguins, and guests.

"He told me to watch my back, the Doctor is right under my nose." Bruce was clearly distraught over the implications of that statement, no wonder he'd been on late beating the crap out of thugs, that seemed to be the only real way he knew how to cope. Although according to the Gotham Gazette this morning the China Town drug runners had basically been eliminated. It caused an uneasy feeling to crawl up Selina's skin too.

"Can we even trust what he has to say?" she asked, though both knew she was just being naïve. There were few things that the Joker didn't joke around about, and from Bruce's reaction, this was clearly not one of his jokes. People had this romantic idea that the Joker went around playing jokes to whatever he found funny and was just making it up as he went along. People who knew him and who dealt with him knew better, they knew that as twisted as he was, there was a criminal mastermind under the face makeup and insane giggles.

"There's more." Bruce added on, and Selina inwardly groaned. Great there was more, there always was. What was that old thing her mother had said, bad things always come in threes? "Apparently the goal of the experimentation is a human super weapon."

"So like, making super humans? Super weapons?" Selina asked incredulous. It wasn't like people hadn't tried, Luthor was rumored to have been pouring any extra dollar he could find into research into getting on the same level of Super Man, Strange had first been realized to be insane and shipped off to an asylum he used to help run when he'd gotten wrapped up in the infamous Indian Hill Project years ago, hell even Ivy had started out as a super human experiment gone wrong under some whacky academics pushing the boundary between plant and person.

"That's the goal. All the Arkham patients were test subjects. Something isn't quite right, I'd go over the bodies again, but they aren't in the morgue anymore."

Selina's eyebrows went up. She knew she was supposed to help plan Harvey's funeral, and had been waiting for a release of the body to be buried after the investigation was over. The fact someone had taken his body, unsettled her. He wasn't the nicest guy in Gotham, far from it, but he deserved a burial like everyone else. Especially because of his efforts the last nine months he'd been alive, he'd really been working on going straight. "Where the hell are they?"

Brue's expression darkened. "Apparently Amanda Waller from the biological research arm of a government project on serial killers wanted to examine their bodies. So the government took them."

"That's bull." Selina hissed, standing up causing a disgruntled cat to fall out of her lap and land unceremoniously on the floor. "That's bull." She started pacing, unable to be still at such a revelation.

"I still haven't found them yet." Bruce said absently, his focus returning to the papers in front of him. "I'm trying to find where the research had been taking place prior to this. If I can find the lab, I can find the Doctor"

Selina looked over at him, his expression matching the same miserable one she had on her own face. "Any luck?"

"No, " he admitted, returning down to his papers and staring at the sheets somewhere. "Not yet. I keep thinking there is a Lexcorp connection because of the chips, but there isn't. My people in Lexcorp have seen similar things, but nothing on the same level or same design. Superman did some digging too, and it isn't in any Lexcorp data base and he said even Luthor seemed surprised when confronted with the design."

"So it's a dead end?"

"Not quite." Bruce answered again. "It makes me think someone made it look like it belongs to Lex and it's close enough it could be. But it's not, it's a different design. It's either actual Luthor's and he made it this way on purpose so he couldn't have it traced backed to him but is vain enough he still has to put personal touches on it or it's someone who wants us to think it's Luthor." Bruce ran his hands through his hair. While his statement was very Batman-y, his behavior was entirely Bruce at the moment. A very tired Bruce.

"And we still have no idea how Ra's fits into this?" The withered look she got in return told her all she needed to know. They had enough pieces, but were missing just enough to not be able to fit them together.

"Someone is playing with you." She said definitively, sitting on his desk and pulling his attention away from his papers and a map of Appalachia. Her heart panged, he was trying to solve this, and his parents. No wonder he looked half dead. Selina smiled a bit inwardly when his entire attention focused on her.

But her mood to mess with him had disappeared, for the most part. It was business time. "Here's a thought." She started, still not sure if he would go for it. "I'll look into all the known super human programs out there, cooperate, mad scientist and government. I'll also get the files on them, something if you'll remember I'm very good at. And you," She leaned in, nose equal with his and looked in his pretty blue eyes. "Are going to go to bed and not wake up for minimum of eight hours."

His face twitched into what took her a few more seconds than it should have to realize it was a smile. "Selina, I'll be fine."

"Bull."

He sighed and she realized this was going to be a bit harder than she thought. "I'll tell you one of my secret entrances into the Gotham Art museum." The alarm on the painting had been their thing for a long time, and he still didn't like he wasn't able to pinpoint all her ways into the museum. All he needed to do was go for the bait, he would, his curiosity wouldn't let him not do it. His eyebrows were arched up, and he looked interested.

She leaned in closer, putting her hands on his shoulders. "You know you want to know." She said sweetly, getting closer to the edge of the desk. Selina pouted when she didn't seem to get a reaction from him. If she couldn't even get sleep deprived Batman to do what she wanted she must be more out of touch than she thought.

Selina opened her mouth to say something but his mouth got there first. It wasn't like all those times on the rooftops, that had been quick and fast and hard because it wasn't supposed to happen, the forbidden part of it and the fact they could have to stop at any second lead to rushing. The barely disguised composure didn't help either. This was soft, gentle, and in a way she'd always known he would be like this. He smelled different out of suit, instead of the armor, leather, sometimes water or blood, he smelled like it did after it rained.

He was the first one to break away, but only to kiss her deeper, his arms coming up to pull her closer to him. Both of them were lost in the moment until a disgruntled meow from the floor broke the spell. Selina silently cursed her attention whore of a cat, who was looking at them as cute as possible and flicking her tail as though she had done nothing wrong.

"Now bed time." Selina remembered, jumping off the desk and pulling on his arm. The slight tug in her side as she did so reminded her she still had her injury, and the slow reaction of him rising to his feet reminded her that he also probably hadn't slept in a long time.

"Are you going to be there?" He asked, smiling very pleased with himself for the comment. She batted at his arm in response and vowed to let it slide since he was still a little loopy from no sleep.

"Why, do you need a bedtime story?"

* * *

 **8:00 AM**

 **Gotham Prep**

 **Dick**

Mondays sucked ass. It wouldn't be so bad if criminals took Sunday as their day off and only really worked Monday through Friday like a normal business. But no, that would be too much effort and they'd spent the last night busting up some Maroni thugs who thought that with the China Town gangs out of the way, they could take over pushing drugs in that part of town. Batman, Nightwing and Batgirl had showed them how wrong they were. But while they got to take a nap and stew in prison, Dick had to go to first period English.

It didn't help he had slept in this morning and was running a bit behind. He grabbed his stuff out of his locker, including some envelope he assumed was a stupid missive from the school. Dick was sliding in the door as the bell rang, earning him a frown from his teacher.

Dick took his seat at the back of the room hurriedly while Miss Brown started to talk about themes in Crime and Punishment and how it related to social darwinism, or something like that. Dick wasn't really paying attention.

He nearly dropped his envelope and sighed. He'd rather read some school board announcement about something like dance etiquette than spend more time reading about, R-whatever's moral dilemmas. But that wasn't what was in the envelope. Inside was a picture, taken from last night, of him and Batman, beating the crap out of some thug in the alley behind The Happy Cat Chinese takeout place. The shot was actually quite good, and must have been taken from a point above the alley looking down on them.

"Mr. Grayson, can you tell us about any modern day examples of Roskolnikov's theory of the ordinary versus the extraordinary man?" Everyone tuned to stare at him, and Dick quickly hid the photo under his book. Miss. Brown loved to pick on kids who weren't paying attention or who just attracted her ire.

"He's talking about how some people are more superior than others. And that those people deserve to have more privileges."

"Like superheroes." Don Gregor interjected, and Dick inwardly groaned but what can you expect from a kid whose dad works for Lex Luthor? He also had some weird hatred towards Dick, insisting he had to be right all the time, and show him up. He wasn't like that to just Dick though, he was rude to anyone whose parents weren't making 7 figures or more, and then you had to be a special kind of human to fit in with him. He'd made sure Dick knew he wasn't truly Gotham elite since day one.

Miss Brown pursed her lips but didn't say anything. She just nodded and went back to rambling on about the importance that Sonya played in the novel.

Dick returned his attention to the photo the second her back was turned around. He flipped it over onto the back, and in neat print was the words "Gotham library. 3:20. Study room B."

He groaned aloud. Bruce was going to have an aneurysm over this, and he'd barely avoided one as it was. He had seemed to be in his cave all weekend, with the rest of them working alongside him as long as they could each stand it. They also seemed no closer to solving the case.

"Do you have something to add Mr. Grayson?" His teacher hissed, looking like she was about to go off on one her rants. The class snickered at him, egging her on to blow up at him. She already did not seem to like him when he fell asleep in class that one time, and had it out for him ever since.

"No Miss Brown." He said polite as possible.

"Maybe you can think of something to add besides groaning during lunch detention." The class openly laughed at him and he could feel the tips of his ears turning red. Today was just not his day.

 **15:20**

 **Gotham Prep Library**

 **Dick**

Bruce had practically, as predicted, had an aneurysm at the photo. Dick spent all of biology talking him down from hacking into new sites, then all of history talking him into letting him go to the meeting. He had texted under the desk in lunch detention into letting Dick go alone to the meeting. Barbra texted him her anger at not being included from the other side of the class during calculus, but he reasoned with her it was because the photographer didn't know who she was.

He had that feeling of dread in his stomach when he entered the library and ran into his least favorite person, again.

"How's lunch detention Mr. Grayyyyyyson?" along with some snickers came from the area desk. Great, just what he needed, know it all Don. According to Babs, he made up all his sources in their debate rounds but that wasn't why Dick hated him. He hated him because the kid was a jerk who thought he was better than everyone.

"Why are you here?" Dick sighed, checking on his phone. He was a minute late, and the last thing he needed was a pissing contest with the class douche. This was important, and Bruce would probably commit murder if his identity got out because Dick was late to a meeting. That or he would be stuck to desk duty for the rest of his life.

The kid smirked, perfect shiny white teeth glaring out. Don was the kind of kid that people thought of when the word male model came up, in addition to being a student he was one. The blue eyes, blonde hair that was slicked back, his light colored button up, colored shorts and boat shoe ensemble made him look like a college student instead of the junior in high school he was.

"It's mentors and mentee day." At Dick's blank stare, he rolled his eyes. "I don't expect a fucking gyspy to understand how important this is, but incoming freshman are paired up with someone from the senior class of next year. It's a big deal because some people at this school want to have good network connections."

Dick saw red, but wasn't given the opportunity to fire back as the librarian called for all mentors to head to the study room area. The effort of keeping the rage in made him curl his hands up into fists, and he instead chose to walk over to the study area. Deep breathes like Bruce had taught him, find a calm place and find your center. Rage is a tool, not a controller.

The short librarian with graying hair looked bored as she called off the rolls. "Alright, go to your assigned study room when I call your name. Study Room A-Mr. Parker. Study Room B-Mr. Grayson. Study Room C-Mr. Banner-"

Dick wasn't paying anymore attention and went into the room and came face to face with a boy who looked like he couldn't be older than twelve, much less be a freshman next year. He had dark hair neatly trimmed back and bright eyes. He was incredibly pale like he didn't see much sunlight and was vaguely familiar but Dick couldn't place him.

That wasn't what caught Dick off guard though. It was the massive hug he got enveloped in. "Oh my God oh my God oh my God. It's the real Nightwing." The kid briefly let go, seeming embarrassed by the outburst and held his hand out for Dick to shake. "Hi, I'm Timothy Drake but you can call me Tim. Timmy is okay too if you like but I prefer Tim." The kid was going a mile a minute and Dick was wrapping his brain around the situation.

"Were you the one who took the photos?" Dick asked, trying to get back to what was important. So he had a name, Drake, where had he seen that name before?

The kid, Tim, beamed. "Good shot huh? I got it yesterday, that was an awesome fight, the way you got that guy even though he was behind you! I have a ton more, want to see them?!" A fan wasn't quite what Dick was expecting, but considering it was better than Strange, he'd take it.

"Of course, but first, what's this mentor thing about though?" Dick asked, trying to get a word in and away from the night life. You never knew who was listening and people could show up and overhear the worst things.

"Oh, I signed you up and then went in the computer to make sure I would get you. My family just moved here from Metropolis, but I've been a fan for a lot longer than that. I used to live in Gotham but my Dad moved for work, he does pharmaceuticals and the maid threatened to call CPS on my om if they didn't take me with them. We're moving down the road from you guys." He paused for a moment. "Can you take me home? I normally ride a taxi but I already spent my money coming here today."

"Yeah I think that's doable." Dick said absentmindly, and resolved to bring him by the house first to meet Bruce. "We have to run by my house first. Bruce wants to talk about the picture."

Tim nodded vigorously "Of course! He also probably wants to know how I got the shot too, I have a bunch in my safe if he wants them." He paused a brief moment. "I won't tell anyone either, and I figured out who Superman, The Flash and some others are too. It's actually not that hard" Great, just what the super community needed, a hormonal teenage boy who knew all their secrets and how to find evidence to prove it. Their one saving grace seemed to be that he wasn't evil.

The unlikely duo left to go to the parking lot, while Dick got a glare from Don who was talking to some raven haired boy. Don tersely waved at Tim, who just smiled. Dick didn't pay him any mind, stupid punk thought he could take Dick in a fight and one day Dick would be able to go full Robin on his ass. Guy thought he was tough playing lacrosse and being just under six foot? Dick took down guys who were twice his size, made of all muscle and had fighting experience. He could wipe the floor with the pretty boy and his manicured hands.

"That's Don Gregor. He requested me but I wanted you so I changed the system." Tim explained as they walked out of the library, the warm spring air a welcome relief from the air conditioned library. Dick wasn't thrilled at the idea of mentoring, but it was better than being exposed. Besides, the kid just talked a lot, and it seemed like it was mainly out of nerves. Dick could sympathize with that. Being new was hard.

* * *

Hi! My last month of university was super busy so I was just able to finish this now. As always, if you feel like it drop a comment to let me know how you feel and thanks for reading!


	16. Chapter 16

**16:30**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

It was very hard to not act like a nervous jumpy wreck especially considering his parents had decided it was time to come out their respective areas of the manor and sit with him in the study. His dad had a million questions about the Joker, and wasn't really satisfied with Bruce's answer that "he's just obsessed with people who do good things for others." Bruce was used to acting normal when he wasn't, hell he'd been to enough society functions that had gotten targeted by criminals over the years, but the stakes had never really been this high. Someone knowing the secret identity and potentially being hostile meant life as he and everyone in and outside the manor as they knew it could be over.

The moment Bruce heard the door open, he made up some excuse about needing to talk to Dick about his detention, and made it into the foyer completely leaving his dad mid sentence. He would have to apologize later and Alfred would get onto him about that but this was too important to wait on. Dick was there, looking a little bit haggered and was accompanied by a young boy who had to be at most just five feet.

"Hi Bruce. This is Tim, you know, the one who took the photo I told you about." The kid beamed at the mention of the photo and Bruce wasn't really sure what to make of it, the panic that had taken a hold of him all day finally starting to dissipate. Of all the many scenarios he concocted in his head, and there were things In there from aliens teaming up with Hugo Strange to a giant elaborate joke that Superman and Hal Jordan kept talking about, this wasn't one of them.

"Hello Tim, I'm-"

"Bruce Wayne. Obviously." The kid was anything but subtle, at least knowing what they all knew with the elephant in the room. They'd need to work on that if they had any hope of him keeping his mouth shut. He didn't really look like a threat, but there were different kinds of dangerous besides physical. Just because the kid was small didn't mean he didn't have some kind of superpower Bruce didn't know about, or that he was secretly trained from birth by the league of Assassins.

Before anyone could say anything, a clacking of heels announced his mother's presence, following him from his study. "Oh hello Dick. Who is your friend?" she effectively shut down any kind of conversation they could have. Batman was itching to go over the photo, and figure out what this kid knew exactly when he knew it and how he figured everything out, but not in front of his mother. That simply would not do. Bruce knew his parent's couldn't know anything about his nightlife, that much he had decided on. Alfred didn't like it and kept telling him they would find out eventually, Bruce just decided he would tell them after this whole investigation was taken care of.

"This is Timothy Drake but he goes by Tim. He is my mentee next year at Gotham Prep." Ahh, that stupid program. Alfred had forced Bruce into doing it, hoping he would make some friends to do things with after school instead of just alternating between working out and sitting in his room, listening to angry music. Bruce had been paired up with some awful skirt chasing bonehead. Bruce had learned a lot, stuff that actually came in handy during his twenties when he insisted on pretending to be an idiot to hide his identity. Bruce just had not enjoyed learning any of it, especially considering Nick's entire idea of fun consisted of bringing Bruce to parties like a pet and trying to get him drunk or high or using Bruce to talk to girls. Bruce refused to do it his senior year.

"Well hello Tim. Are you excited for Gotham Prep next year?" As his mother asked Tim all the questions adults do when they meet a school aged child they are unfamiliar with, Bruce caught Dick's eye. Dick shrugged apologetically, and gestured back over to Tim. Bruce was kind of irritated that Dick had waited this long, he could have found time during the car ride back to have told him they weren't dealing with villain psychos or reporters but a middle schooler,

"I think it will be just wonderful if Tim stays for dinner, don't you Dick? Tim will your parents be alright with that?"

Tim nodded, shyly getting out a "That's very kind of you to invite me" before Martha turned her attention on finding Alfred to tell him one more would be coming for dinner. She wandered off, but not before reminding Tim to bring his parents around some time so they may be offically welcomed in the neighborhood before Bruce finally got the chance to start asking questions he wanted.

The walk back to his, now empty study, was quiet until the doors shut behind Dick. Then it was all chatter. There were so many things he wanted to know, what gave it away, what methodology, how they had gotten to this point.

"Here's the picture I took of you guys, it's a super good shot too. Hard to get." Tim handed over the picture to Bruce and yep, there he was along with Dick. Reporters generally left them alone, preferring to not get too close, especially after the Joker went after one photographer and permanently disfigured him. That was provided reporters were able to get close at all, usually by the time there had been reports of any of the Batfamily, they were already gone. The kid had some nerve. Inner Batman was seething but was also impressed. After all, someone willing to get that close and still not get caught, that took some skill.

Bruce nearly had to stop his hands from going to his forehead to make sure his eyebrows didn't go up. Advantages of wearing a cowl sometimes. "And there's more?"

Tim nodded. "I have lots. I have a few of some other people in Gotham, other superheroes too but you guys are my favorite. I can show you sometime if you want to see." The kid's eyes shone bright and lit up when he started talking about it, and it was incredibly obvious to Bruce that it was something he cared about a lot. This kid wasn't trying to blackmail them, or at least if he was he hadn't started to yet. He just wanted to meet them.

Bruce nodded affirmative, which made Tim smile a bit bigger. "How did you find out who we were?" The question he really wanted to know. Had he failed somewhere in his numerous and many safeguards a literal middle schooler was able to figure it out? That meant it was only a matter of time before some reporters came around, which was the last thing he needed, now or ever.

"Oh that was easy." Tim explained, "When I was young I went to the circus, the same circus where, um," he glanced nervously over at Dick who nodded for him to keep going. "I saw you perform. I remember it because both my parents had promised to do something with me for my birthday and I wanted to see the acrobats. They let me have a camcorder. A few years later, there was a fight between you two and the Joker on the news. You used one of the exact same acrobat moves. The ages matched up, so I figured if you were Robin, your guardian had to be Batman. Then it made sense." Tim noted, seemingly pleased at the speechless reaction.

"Then what made sense?" Dick asked, curious.

"I followed Batman and Robin around, took pictures, that sort of thing. Then I later compared them with photos of you going around your normal lives, checking to see if there were injuries, anything new, stuff like that. I also went through and found numerous shell companies, which for someone as straight and narrow as Bruce Wayne didn't make a ton of sense until I assumed they were batcaves or equipment" It sounded like the most obvious thing in the world to Tim. He'd quite literally followed them around for years to try and discover their secret identities based off a hunch. Inner Batman was horrified they had been found out by a kid whose voice hadn't cracked yet. Inner detective Batman marveled at the tenacity.

"Would you mind telling me exactly how you did everything? That way we can be more careful in the future?" Bruce asked while Tim lit up again.

"Of course! Also, When I was in Metropolis I figured out who Superman was too. Do you want me to write that out too? And a few other people like the Flash." Clark was going to have a conniption. Reporters, the Government, Lex Luthor had all been trying to figure him out for years, and Tim had figured it out.

"How did you do that?" Dick asked, incredibly curious.

"Oh, I got a hold of some of my Dad's satellite data and tracked anything that was in flight around a certain size of mass. When it kept going to the same apartment I went to the city records building and found the record of the lease agreement. No wonder the Daily Planet has such good inside scoops on what goes on considering they literally have Superman on payroll." Bruce laughed and Tim smiled again, pleased with himself. Oh Clark was not going to be happy about this, he had been pissed enough when Bruce Wayne showed up and asked to speak to Superman.

"That's how I figured him out too." Bruce admitted which made Tim very happy. Dick shook his head in amusement at them both, and Bruce knew he was mentally calling them both nerds.

"Hey Tim," Dick started, "Do we need to call your parents to tell them you're staying for dinner?"

"Oh my parents aren't in Gotham right now." Tim said absentmindly while he continued to write out his method of detective work.

Bruce felt his stomach sink a little. "What do you mean not in Gotham?"

"Oh they're still in Metropolis finishing some stuff up. They'll be here next week."

Dick looked shocked "Is anyone staying with you?"

"Nope, it's just me. The housekeeper comes by during the day but she thinks my parents come home at night. I take a taxi school since I'm not legally allowed to drive yet." This was all very matter of fact, and like it was completely normal to him that his parents were away for long stretches of time. No wonder he was able to follow them around all night to take pictures, he had no one supervising him.

"How about you stay here until they get back?" The suggestion was out before Bruce really thought about it.

Tim shrugged, trying to stay calm but was actually really excited. Then his expression dimmed. "I'm supposed to stay at my house."

"We're not letting you stay by yourself." Dick declared, looking conspiratorial. He was planning something and would love to have a partner in crime. Barbara usually didn't play along with his practical jokes and nonsense, and Dick had been trying to chip away at Selina to play a practical joke on Alfred with him. Dick then looked over at Bruce and gave him what Bruce privately referred to as the kicked puppy dog eyes.

"Based on what you know, I want to make sure you're safe." Bruce started, desperate to try and make sure this made sense tactically. "Besides, I can't let you stay alone now that I know." Which Bruce realized, had been Tim's entire point.

Tim looked up from his writing, "well, I guess I could stay. Can I see the Batcave?"

Dick laughed, catching up on the fact that had been Tim's angle all along. Bruce nodded which made Tim happily go back to his writing, while Bruce contemplated how he was going to explain to Alfred why Tim was there.

* * *

 **02:40**

 **Wayne Enterprises Headquarters, Downtown Gotham**

 **Selina**

Getting into Wayne Enterprises had been easy enough, it was almost like she had helped design the security system or something. Besides, she wasn't after the heavily secure stuff that took up some of the building. Whatever Bruce and Lucius were up to that they were so tight lipped about wasn't what she was after, though Selina liked to think she could get it if she wanted to. No, she just wanted into the records room, that was all.

Selina had her own private theory she wanted to test before bringing it to Bruce, seeing as she had told him to concern himself with his parent's case while she would do some exploring on the Doctor. It had taken her a while to convince him to let her work on it, and that taking a break was a good thing. She had known he was possessive and obsessed with his work, but hadn't realized how possessive. She'd finally managed to convince him taking a break would clear his perspective, and she set out to work on her own for a while.

Selina's theory was simple. This wasn't a new player on the scene, this was someone old they had dealt with before, or some mutation of someone dealt with before. Randomly trying to turn people into human weapons was a weird thing to get into, and it was dumb to start at the bottom when previous groups had started to work on it. Why start at the wheel if someone else's research is already at the Manhattan project?

Which took her to the Wayne Enterprises building. Many years ago, before Bruce had turned eighteen and was able to take control of Wayne Enterprises, there had been a Wayne Enterprises project, Indian Hill, that had been shut down by the Government and made the world realize Strange was coco for coco puffs. The company had claimed it was for medicine purposes but in reality they were experimenting with human DNA. They had been shut down, and Strange, along with a few other co-conspirators went to prison and Arkham respectively and it was all tied up with a neat little bow. The news media eventually found some other scandal to cover for 24 hours a day and it looked like the only people left caring were the ones in prison, the ones who had it on their resume and the conspiracy theorists.

Except, Selina knew better. There was no way someone would just let that kind of research sit and not try to expand on it farther. Wayne enterprises had just gotten caught, and when she looked for the information in government databases, as well as what medical findings they had made, she noticed a few things off. First, all government paper copies had been missing or misfiled, which Selina took as code for "we don't feel like showing these to anyone." A reporter's Freedom of Information Act request had been denied under the claim of sensitive company information would be exposed, and Selina decided something was off. There must be a lot more there, she knew it the same way she knew she was looking at a fake wall with something valuable behind it.

So until her contacts from a part of the former Soviet Union could come up with where the government stored files from cases like Indian Hill and other such programs, she was stuck to handling other paper copies. And if she couldn't steal from the government, well she could steal from the other people who were likely to have files on record.

Which meant she got into the secure area of the Wayne Enterprises records center. She knew Bruce had scanned copies, he was a data hoarder, but she wanted to see if there was something in the physical ones that she missed. Sometimes having the actual thing right in front of you made things jump out that didn't on a computer screen. At least that was the official excuse, the real reason was she just wanted to break into something and it might as well be for a good cause.

She'd made it to the floor the records rooms were on, 18—20, managing to avoid detection so far. She'd have to fix that tomorrow; someone really should have seen her by now.

Selina snuck her way over and down the hall towards the secure room she thought must have the files, only to discover the light was already on. It wasn't right, and made her nerves go off a bit. Selina grabbed her whip, ready for a fight just in case. This was all wrong, the door, the keycard guarded door, was open and light shone out into the hall. Selina rolled her eyes.

What a dumbass. They were either bold as brass, which was possible, or stupid. Considering this was the Wayne Enterprises building, which everyone knew was protected by not just high security but by Batman himself, she was willing to bet on a mix of both.

After entering the room she started using her stealth to her advantage, she hid in the shadows, just in time too. Footsteps, heavy, probably a man's, were walking around the record room with her. She sent out a silent alert to Bruce, just because she figured if he didn't know someone was going through his secure information it might be nice to give him a heads up, and moved closer.

The room was a maze, built that way on purpose to confuse anyone who may be trying to steal information. She was able to go across the tops of the ten feet tall cabinets, managing to stay out of sight from anyone on the ground except for a few vantage points. Now all she had to do was stay hidden and follow the footsteps, easy enough for the world's best catburgler.

When she finally caught up with them, she wasn't exactly pleased with herself. The figure wasn't huge, maybe about five feet and eight inches or so, and rather thin. A far cry from the figure the Bats had run into at Arkham. Yet, she was sure they were the same team, scrubs, surgical gear covering the face and hair, gloves. The figure, who looked male, seemed like they were ready to walk into an operating room. Unless Strange or Professor Pyg or someone else was into new gear, this had to be the same group.

Selina hid in the shadows that fell across her perch, watching with interest. She could see the files he was going through were a part of the medical research that Wayne Enterprises had done over the years, meaning they were also going to go through the Indian Hill files. Kitty-1 Bat-0.

The sound of sirens were heard off in the distance, Batman probably having alerted the authorities by now, and the figure looked up, tucking the documents into a briefcase with him. He seemed to be staring straight at her, but Selina didn't move. She knew he couldn't see her, she was completely hidden behind some boxes and the cover of darkness.

"Hello Catwoman." The voice was cold, oily and set her hair on edge, he knew she was there and had all along. He was just waiting for her to make a move. Well damn, so much for hiding. She gently landed on her feet five feet from him, remembering the last one had exploded.

"I think you have what I want," she stated, refusing to back down. There was nothing he was holding that seemed like it could be used as a weapon, and men often overestimated their own strength. Even with her injury almost healed she could probably take him down no problem. After getting no response she spoke again. "So how about you just hand that over and I won't tell Bats about this."

She had hoped for a response at the mention of Batman, considering how excited the figure got the last time they ran into Batman. Unfortunately, she got no response so Selina did what anyone else would do. Selina grit her teeth and darted forward to grab it, only to get a hard blow to the ribcage for her troubles. Her side lit up with pain but she ignored it, going after the briefcase. It would take more than a hit to bring her down.

She, despite her speed, was apparently too slow and he again was five feet away from her. She groaned inwardly, knowing now what she was working with and that it would be harder than she originally thought. He looked small and unassuming, but it was all a lie. She was pretty sure he'd cracked a rib and even though he didn't look capable of it, was a lot more powerful then he looked. Bruce better hurry his ass up.

"Marvelous." The slinky voice was back and Selina suddenly felt very small, like she was a piece of meat. "Incredible reflexes, high speed, stamina, stealth skills. Best suited for quick stealth driven attacks and acrobatics. Abilities as a thief give a unique perspective into tactical planning." It was said with a robotic tone like she was a Pokemon or something and also with one of awe. She hissed in frutration, not even meaning to, she wasn't upsetting him; she was feeding his weird creepy observations.

"Briefcase freak. Now." He didn't make a move, so she struck out with her whip, hoping to catch him off guard and be able to take it from him. Quick as before, Selina didn't even see him grab the braided leather and pull her off her feet. She landed on the ground with an ungraceful crash and despite pulling away had something shoved in her face. He was too fast to be normal, her brain insisted, she hadn't lost her touch that much.

Selina didn't know what it was, but was pretty sure it was some kind of knockout agent considering it caused her to get dizzy and her body to go limp as her brain decided it was time to sleep. She kicked and lashed out, trying to do some kind of damage, show some kind of a struggle or something but wasn't able to tell if she made any progress. The last thing she felt before falling asleep was someone removing her mask.

* * *

 **03:20**

 **Gotham City**

 **Bruce**

Selina was slumped across the passenger seat of the Batmobile, snoozing soundly. He'd have to take her to an outside batcave and test her for trackers, he couldn't take any chances she had gotten bugged. He didn't think so, he couldn't see anything when he first arrived and found her unconscious on the floor but it was better safe then sorry.

Bruce had arrived to her alarm, and upon making his way into the building could see why her alarm had gone off but the normal one didn't. His security team maintaining the cameras, all completely knocked out. Based off what his cowl's scanner picked up, it appeared to be some kind of knockout gas, though how they got far enough into the building to attack the security guards and not set any alarm off was yet to be seen. the camers were missing footage from a certain time period too, which concerned him.

That wasn't what really worried him though, when he'd arrived into the records room, minutes before the police did, He'd found Selina by where the medical research was kept, the files completely empty and Selina without her mask. The thief had seen her face, and that meant nothing good.

Bruce clamped down on his emotions and filed them away for now. He needed to push up his timetable and force a confrontation sooner rather than later. It was one thing to go after Arkham, a complete other to go after his own company. This was getting more and more personal and he didn't like where it was going.

Lucius Fox had already been emailed about the break-in, and Bruce mentally went over what he as going to say to the press tomorrow morning. Bruce had also already gone ahead and told Dick and Barbara to go on patrol through the West Side on their own, he would take care of this. They were both asking for updates but Bruce just kept telling them he'd tell them when they got to the batcave.

He kept looking over at Selina, who occasionally stirred but for the most part was still sound asleep. Her breathing was more shallow than normal, so he'd make sure to give her a medical check too. Bruce quietly stewed in anger as he drove in to the underground batcave he had on this part of the city. He had been stupid to let her do this by herself. It had been him slacking on his work, ever since his parents came back Bruce's drive had slacked. No more, no more excuses, from now on he was going to spend all his free time dedicated to this case and that of his parents, no side work nothing. It was the best way to make sure everyone stayed safe, which meant he'd have to work even harder at drawing this Doctor freak out of hiding.

Selina had been right, they were after medical research which fit with what the Arkham inmates said about a medical experiment along with the MO of dressing like a doctor. They both seemed to be accelerating, Batman in the efforts to find the medical group and the medical group to accomplish their goals before he caught up with him. It was a race to the finish line, and Bruce vowed he would not be the one who arrived at the confrontation second. He had always been a step behind in this case, which was unacceptable as Batman was always one step ahead of everyone else.

It was time for something drastic, and drastic was what medical types didn't like. They liked calm, predictable and thins that followed a pattern, which fit a lot of what Batman liked to do as well. Not anymore for Batman. He gently pulled Selina out of her seat, carefully to avoid her ribcage and brought her over to the scanner, and felt another pulse of rage. It was an unspoken agreement in most of the polite community of heroes and villains, that you did not just take someone's mask off. You had to figure out who they were via stalking. To take someone's mask off was like taking their clothes, it was a violation and not okay. The rage flared up again and Bruce had to be careful to not jostle her as he laid her down on the scanning table.. None of this was okay.

* * *

Hello friends! Thank you for all your kind words and for reading, it means a lot to me as the author! As always, I hope you enjoy the story.


	17. Chapter 17

**7:00**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Selina**

Selina rolled her eyes again at Bruce attempting to send her off to bed so he could go to the cave to work. Dick and Barbara had been asking her every time they thought he was out of earshot what happened, and privately Selina wondered if she had missed something. Because what she remembered and their conversation after her waking up in the cave had given no indication she was going to get this kind of reaction.

Bruce, whom she had been spending lots of time with, the joking smiley person, was gone. In his place was gruff and unyielding Batman, who insisted he really was too busy to talk right now and had very important work to do in the batcave. By himself. He'd kicked her, Dick, Barbara and even the kid that had somehow appeared in their life and was allowed to go in the batcave named Tim, out. She had initially protested, insisting after telling him what had happened that she was fine but Dick told her it was pointless arguing with him when he got like this, and was just his way of being upset.

Well as far as she was concerned, he could be upset all he wanted. She was going to go after this freak that looked at her like a labrat, and she was going to do it whether he wanted her too or not. Whether he did it with her or without her was up to him. Stubborn ass.

"Good morning Miss." Alfred greeted her, as usual unfazed by anything Bruce did and his negative mood. Must be nice, then again he had had to deal with Bruce as a teenager. Maybe Alfred was just so used to it none of it registered anymore.

"Hi Alfred," Selina answered noting the breakfast tray Alfred was carrying, normally everyone ate in the kitchen or in the dining room. "Is that for Bruce?"

Alfred sighed, "yes, not like he's going to eat it. He's going to spend hours down there working until he crashes, sleep for a few hours and eat something then start all over while chugging caffeine."

"Good morning Selina, Alfred." Thomas Wayne had appeared, making Selina thoroughly convinced that the sudden appearing and disappearing was just a thing that happened if you staid in this house long enough. He eyed they tray in Alfred's hands with interest "Bruce's breakfast?"

"Yes, he's holed up working on some project of his. Insisted he is to not be disturbed." Alfred said, and Selina nodded along, silently thinking of all the many ways she was going to yell at Bruce for this. Making the household walk around you on tiptoes was one thing, having them lie to your dad about why everyone was on tiptoes, even by lie of omission, was another.

Thomas laughed, "Well, I know where he gets it from. Sorry about that." He smiled apologetically, his blue eyes twinkling. He really reminded Selina of Bruce, and she privately wondered if the happy good spirit thing would have happened to him too if he hadn't been essentially orphaned as a kid. Thomas, was determined to not let Bruce's moodiness get them down. "Why don't the rest of us non-night owls go eat some breakfast and then see the city today? There's a new restaurant up by your building I'm told is just fabulous. "

Selina nodded that seemed like a nice idea while Alfred scurried off into the shadows, probably so he couldn't be followed. Thomas went off in a different direction towards the dinning room and Selina followed along, still in her house shoes since Alfred insisted no one wear shoes in this part of the manor lest they make stains on the carpet.

"So Selina, you work as a charity fundraiser?" Thomas asked interested, and Selina realized it was one of the few times she had been one on one with the oldest Mr. Wayne. She had spent plenty of time with both of Bruce's parents together, but Mr. Wayne was someone she hadn't spoken too very much. Selina found herself suddenly not sure how to act.

"Yes Mr. Wayne," she answered, choosing to go formal. She had never gotten permission to call him anything else, whereas Bruce's mother insisted Selina call her Martha moments after meeting her. "I mainly work with ones involving animals."

"Please dear, it's Thomas." He assured her with a smile and Selina felt more at ease. "What kind of animals do you mainly work with?"

"Oh all kinds, though the organization I've worked with the longest rescues wild cats. Animals that end up in the parts trade and conservation efforts is a lot of what they do." Thomas nodded along interested as they walked down towards the dining room. Unlike their son, both older Waynes were very easy to talk to and the kind of people Selina felt instantly at ease with. She wondered where Bruce got the shy gene from.

On the way down the hallway Selina privately referred to as the judgement hall, the one with all the portraits of members of the Wayne family, they passed the media room and could hear the news all the way out from the hallway a few doors down. Stopping by to poke their head in, Both Selina and Thomas found Dick, fully dressed, watching the news at full volume. He looked incredibly tired and exhausted, even more so at the subject matter.

Summer Gleason, top reporter for Gotham local news was covering the story of the morning, the Wayne Enterprises Robbery. "Though the company insists that no records relating to recent projects were stolen, head of the company Bruce Wayne has been asking for their return. The company released a statement early this morning revealing some of the documents were related to the infamous Indian Hill project. That project, though shut down about twenty years ago, is still of interest in the medical and science community, with human DNA testing becoming more and more mainstream. Wayne Enterprises says the theft of the former records detailing the Indian Hill project and other medical projects is equivalent to cooperate espionage and they intend to treat the incident as such, even with the fact several members of the project took their experimentation too far. The District Attorney's Office, who prosecuted the case, also released a statement that outlined that the documents importance, saying that they were what was used to build the case against Project members, including Batman villain Dr. Hugo Strange."

At Strange's name Dick shut off the TV, groaning in annoyance at Summer's insistence at referring to various members of the Rogue community, even after being asked not to multiple times by psychiatrists and Batman himself. Strange was weird, creepy and obsessive about the Batfamily sure but for the most part, he was pretty harmless. He was a lot like the Riddler, sure he'd play around and run you around all over Gotham playing mind-games, but once you got to the end, he was rather easy to beat the crap out of. Despite that, being refereed to as a Batman villain, in relation to what got him sent to prison in the first place no less, was only going to stroke his ego and they could all expect him popping up soon.

"What was the Indian Hill project?" Mr. Wayne asked curiously, seemingly re-alerting the entire room to his presence. Tim peered over the couch, Selina would have to get used to looking out for him too. He was an odd kid, the first thing he had asked her was what was her favorite thing to steal. Dick had hurriedly explained the kid had figured them out before going on patrol, and Selina had been baffled by him even after.

"It was a Wayne Enterprises project from a long time ago." Dick explained, "Way back before Bruce took over and it was still under that board of directors. They got caught engaging in unethical medical testing."

"Also known as they got caught testing on people, some without their consent. That sort of thing." Selina interjected, while Dick looked slightly unnerved. You did not talk about the Indian Hill project, she had learned that the hard way after the glare she got the first time after suggesting to look into it again.

"Yeah, I don't know a ton about it. Bruce doesn't like to bring it up. The second he got control he fired everyone involved and went through and helped the victim's families. And refused to talk about it ever again." Dick started playing on his phone again, probably texting Barbra that Bruce was going to be in an even worse mood due to the news coverage.

Thomas looked shocked, then very sad. "Gotham was a different world back then. I tried to play a role in the company but I hated business. Despite my Father's best efforts I was never very good at it. Martha wasn't either, though she was quite good at making people pay attention to things. I spent more time working as a Doctor over at Gotham General then I did anything else."

"What kind of Doctor were you?" Tim asked, interested. Had he been here all night? Someone would have to explain it to her at some point, because she wasn't really sure how much he was supposed to know or not know. Though it was pretty clear he knew she was Catwoman. He'd made some comment about how he assumed that she would have had more than one cat.

Thomas smiled. "I worked in the ER a lot. I worked with trauma like gunshot wounds and stuff like that. That area of town was really bad back in the day and they couldn't keep doctors working there, due to a lack of ability to pay them and that it was just an awfully violent section of the city, so I worked there for free. I spent a lot of my free time and money helping the hospital, and look where it is today. A research hospital and it's able to help even more people." It was easy to see where Bruce got his drive for helping people from and it wasn't just his mother. Both Waynes were very big into helping Gotham and it was easy to see why Bruce made the logical leap into becoming Batman.

"Now," Thomas noted, "let's go eat breakfast. It'll take you a bit longer to get to school if you're dropping off Tim on your way Dick."

* * *

 **00:30**

 **Gotham District Attorney Office, Gotham Downtown**

 **Selina**

Maybe it was a good thing she'd never really cared about attorney client privilege or whatever it was called, she'd certainly never needed it. She had, however, taken enough documents from this office over the years to know where things were. She had all her gear plus some toys she, borrowed, from the batcave. Some freeze grenades to hopefully slow the freak down, Tasers and other fun electricity stuff to hopefully shock him into submission and a few more other fun interesting explosive things.

Her side was still on fire, Alfred said he didn't think she cracked it but bruised it. Whatever that meant, Selina wasn't into long prolonged fights, she was more of a surprise blitz attack then run kind of girl. Selina's Mode of Operandi was to sneak in, steal stuff, then sneak out. No other person required. She was not happy to attack people, she didn't like fighting or scaring the living daylights out of people. She was a run in and grab stuff kind of girl. The less people she saw, the more successful she was.

She picked the safe with relative ease, seriously she knew city funding was tight but come on. The thing was probably made fifty or so years ago and had been built more for surviving earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters than a thief. But here in Gotham, thieves were the ones you should probably worry the most about.

Once inside she carefully took out all the papers she could find with Indian Hill on them, some intern had been nice enough to put big stickers on them that marked them as such. God there were a lot. Even though the case had been before e-file storage was a thing, something that made her job easier, was it really needed to file this much stuff, and have so many copies? No wonder they were killing the planet, something Ivy wouldn't ever shut up about. She'd just have to take them all and sort through them later. The less time she spent in the open the better.

Selina wheeled around and slunk back through the way she came. Out the office, wait for the security guy to pass through, and go using the ceiling above and camera blind sports to get to the stairwell. Once there it was up the stairs, through the roof access and then back all the way across town. If everything went according to plan.

But hey, Things never went according to plan with Catwoman right? She opened the door to the roof, which was stupid easy to disarm and ran straight into Batman. He looked more like a shadow, silhouetted against the lights of the city, but she knew it was him. He always seemed more menacing when he stood that way, which she knew was on purpose. She had seen the softer side of Batman, but the real softness only came out when Bruce was around.

"I see we had the same idea." He noted coolly and she internally groaned. He was still acting like a little kid who didn't get his way.

"You're not the only one who has a good idea every now and then." She fired back and his facial expression didn't even budge. Great, he really was pissed about it. She had figured out over the years all the things to say and do that normally pushed his buttons. Apparently today was an odd one out because he was being very still.

"There's a lot of papers here, more than you had on hand. Maybe if we look at other people they wanted to charge we'll get an idea. I also had a friend pull some more recent files on Dollmaker and Professor Pyg, just in case. I'm also going to go after Luthor's stuff and see where he got his information and if the testing is continuing." Again, no response, and she sighed. "You're welcome by the way."

"This isn't about being grateful." It was that tone of voice again. He always managed to be irritatingly calm and collected when she was itching for a fight, and he wouldn't give in to arguing with her. Which meant later she wouldn't have an excuse to yell at him. She just needed him to get mad at her so she had a rational reason to be mad at him, why didn't men understand that?

"Then what is it about 'Detective'?"

There it was. The reference to Ra's, who had been calling the house about every two hours until Alfred disconnected the phone lines, got under his skin enough to get a reaction. His jaw clenched up and even without the lens protecting his eyes, she knew there was the glare underneath. She could feel it. "You're being careless. They know who you are. Why can't you leave it alone and let me take care of it."

There it was. His stupid need to play hero and his stupid need to rescue people. There had been no more abductions so she would just have to do. Well Selina Kyle did not fucking do damselling. At fucking all. "Because you don't think I can do it, is that what you're saying?" her hand was itching to grab her whip and smack it across his stupid batsymbol on his stupid armor.

"No Selina. You're more than capable. Don't twist what I'm trying to say." He was frustrated. Good. Maybe now he would understand how she felt. "They know who you are. We don't know anything about them like who they are or where they are. If they decide to come after you I won't know how to get you back."

"That's IF they get me."

"I found you with your mask off, ribs bruised and unconscious last night." The irritatingly calm tone was back. Damn him. She had gone up against a guy with super powers she didn't know about at less than one hundred percent. That was no reason to write her off. Especially seeing as he almost gotten blown up. She made another move to protest but his hand was already up to his cowl, listening through that radio system he had tried to insist he needed to install in her suit. "Be right there." He replied, responding to whatever crisis had come up now. "Commissioner Gordon is missing. Place is a mess." He stopped about to file his grappling hook before thinking better of it. He turned back around and took a step toward her, closing the gap between them to about five feet. "Nightwing has the batmobile so we can't drive there, but would you like to come?" The invite was a peace offering, and probably as much an apology that she would get for now.

She tucked away the papers into the bag she brought with her and pulled her whip off her hip. "Do you even have to ask?"

* * *

 **01:00**

 **The Gordon Brownstone, Gotham Westside**

 **Dick**

He finally got to drive the batmobile. He'd driven it before but only in emergencies, like Batman was unconscious, severely bleeding, or both. He had never just gotten the okay to drive it on a regular patrol, told he could use his grappling hook or his bike, but not tonight. He'd finally managed to convince Bruce, with a little help from Alfred, that he was fine being able to take it out on patrol while Bruce watched over Selina. He'd proven he could drive in extreme conditions multiple times, knew better than to speed, despite the fact he would love to go racing in it, and was totally deserving to go driving in it on patrol. Bruce had acquiesced, despite giving him a ton of rules about it, that Bruce himself broke quite often. No driving on rooftops, no using it as a battering ram, speed limits must be obeyed unless responding to call or on a chase and get out of the way for actual police cars. If you have to ask if Alfred would approve the answer was no. that kind of thing.

For the most part, it had been super quiet. Just him and Babs driving around town on a boring Tuesday night, there had been two attempted muggings, a pawn shop attempted robbery, and a guy who had flagged them down and tried to get them to yell at his escort for taking his money. Life in Gotham was never boring that was for sure.

"So, how did you get B to let you drive this thing again?" Babs asked amused. Dick had been very hurt that she had been allowed to drive it first, though in fairness Dick had taken one of the cars in the garage upstairs to an event to show off to an acquaintance from school. She'd lorded it over his head for a while, even though Dick was older than her by a month and had gotten his license first.

"I told you, it's the Nightwing charm." Babs rolled her eyes and Dick giggled to himself.

"Whatever you say." Babs responded, but she was more affectionate about it then mad. Their relationship had been going great so far, with Dick able to introduce her to his favorite ice cream shop. Hell he had already had 'the conversation' with her Dad about how a lot of police officers thought of Babs as their kid too so he better treat his daughter right. Or else.

"He actually got it so Batman could see what Catwoman was up to." A voice from the backseat noted and Dick slammed on the brakes hard. He and Babs reached into the backseat at the same time, searching for the source of the voice and tugged on the seat, the floor, the ceiling anything until a dark blanket, the one they previously assumed had been part of the carpet, came off the floorboard to reveal Tim Drake. Kid was tiny enough he had curled up and with the cars dark interior and the blanket he used, neither him nor Babs had seen him until now.

"Jesus Christ Tim, you can't just do that to people!" Dick admonished, while Batgirl was still trying to process how they had missed him getting into the car. "What if the car blew up? What if something bad happens and we need to transport the Joker or something? You know he broke out again." Dick was able to come up with a million things they might need the backseat for, and explaining why Tim was in the backseat of the Batmobile when he hadn't been victim of a crime was going to be super hard to explain.

Tim flushed, his face and ears turning bright red. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to see what it was like." Boy did Dick know what that was like. Once Dick had gotten a taste of the nightlife, he couldn't get enough. It was an addiction, for all of them. One that happened to help people and stop crime, but an addiction nevertheless. Dick didn't know what he would do with himself if he couldn't be a vigilante anymore.

Dick's forehead made contact with the steering wheel. Was this how Bruce had felt when Dick insisted on coming with him? All he could think about were worst case scenarios. Was this what being a grown-up was like?

They were saved by Barbara, ever the calm one, who pointed out they should get out of the middle of the road. She also suggested that since her family brownstone was nearby, that they could just park nearby and work it out. After all, it was the Commissioner's house and no one would think it was weird that Batman was keeping an eye on him, especially if the Joker was out. He had some weird obsession with her family, though her and her Dad were a very distant second place compared to his obsession with Bruce.

Tim sulked in the backseat the entire ride though and Dick was going over a million things in his head. It was obvious the kid wasn't going to go away, he'd pretty much admitted as much on the ride to school that day. Besides, he and Bruce got along, which was rare in and of itself. Hell, even Selina seemed to like him. If Tim was going to be sticking around, there needed to be some ground rules, like no sneaking into the Batmobile. No going out without a costume. No going out unless supervised.

Dick groaned, and though Barbra raised her eyebrows, she didn't ask why. He was becoming Bruce damn it. He was also pretty sure Bruce would accept his suggestion they give Tim lessons on how to fight without batting an eyelash despite Tim's insistence he had trained with some fancy judo instructor while in Metropolis. No, Alfred was the person to ask about this.

"Oh no." Barbra's voice of panic interrupted his thoughts. Her family brownstone's door was open, light strewing out into the street. Despite living in a fairly nice neighborhood, that was unusual. She exited the car before Dick had fully stopped it and was racing up the stairs.

"Batgirl wait!" Dick called but it was no use. She was too focused on her dad to hear him or simply wasn't listening to him. He turned to Tim. "You. Stay here. Do not get out of this car unless someone approaches the car with intent to hurt you or blow up the car. Then you get out and run got it?" Tim nodded, his eyes wide as saucers at being so close to a crime scene while in the batmobile. Dick jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind him and raced up the stairs to follow her incase someone was still inside.

"Hey B." Dick said into his communicator, not even waiting for a response. He ran in to follow Barbra and stepped over the strewn furniture across the living room. There had been some kind of struggle that much was obvious. "Commissioner Gordon is missing. House is turned upside down. Door was open."

"Be right there." Bruce sounded a bit peeved, though if he was mad at Dick for interrupting whatever he was doing with Selina, he could wait.

"Anything?" He called out, getting a rather worried no. Batgirl reappeared, having gone through the whole house looking for her Dad.

"Everything is a mess. Stuff is turned up all over the place. There's some blood in his bedroom but since it's near the door frame I don't know who it belongs to. His sidearm and badge are also missing."

She was clearly incredibly worried, and Dick knew he needed to do something. "Hey, we know his bloodtype and we can check to see if it matches the DNA we have on file. There's a blood scanner in the car, why don't you go get it and we can run some tests on it. We'll check if it's his blood type first and if that doesn't rule him out we will try DNA. While we are waiting for B to show up, we can check out the rest of the house to see if anything is out of place." It wasn't much, but without something glaringly obvious there wasn't anything Dick could do. "I don't think it's the Joker though." Barbra looked over at him hopefully, "He'd leave a calling card for Batman or the GCPD to find." At least, he normally did.

It was enough and Barbra seemed to get her mojo back as she went out the front door and towards the car. Dick decided to go check out the bedroom, where the struggle had taken place to see if he could pick anything up or get some idea of what went down. He may not have the title of "World's Greatest Detective" attached to his name but he knew how to read a crime scene.

Like Babs had said there was some blood on the door but no handprints of any kind in it. Maybe someone got their head slammed against it? The splatter type seemed inconsistent with a knife wound in his non-professional opinion. There were no pools of blood either, so that was another good sign. No had bleed out here. The sheets were rumpled and not at all neat, like someone had just gotten out of bed. The dust on the desk in the room was well as the dresser and nightstand was intact, meaning nothing on them had been moved recently. The side drawer on the night stand was open and empty, presumably where the commissioner kept his badge and side arm in case he needed to grab it quickly on his way into work or if someone got into his house.

He herd footsteps behind him. "Hey Batgirl, you got the scanner yet?" And turned around to come face to face with a figure in scrubs. Dick sighed and pulled out his eskirma sticks from their position on his back and took a defensive stance. "You don't look like Batgirl." He noted, ever unable to resist talking.

"That's because I'm not." The voice was smooth, calm, controlled and even a little bit cheerful. Not snakelike or robotic like the recordings he had watched over and over at the Batcave. How many of these guys were there? He sent a distress signal over the comms, only to hear Barbra's go off as well. Great, an ambush. Remembering Selina's insistence that they were more than human, Dick tensed and went over everything he had learned from his sparring matches with other heroes. No overestimating your own ability, don't underestimate theirs, and run, do not walk away from this unless there's an opening that will give him an outside advantage.

Scrubs darted forward and Dick barely got his sticks up in time before being able to dodge a blow and was able to counter with a hard smack to the face, causing a splintering of the plastic in the googles. He took the blow to the leg, though it hurt it would just leave a bruise and hit again, aiming for the chest this time. If he could knock the wind out of the guy, it may give him enough time to go help Batgirl, because fighting with a partner always increased the odds.

Not that it mattered because a small grenade was thrown in the room from the hall, effectively distracting him enough for his opponent to land a solid blow to his wrist, causing him to drop one of his weapons. Dick snarled in pain, and made a movement towards the hallway before the grenade detonated.

Dick was barely able to block another blow to his other wrist while the grenade detonated a smoke like substance. Dick reached for his gas mask, but needed both hands to fend of his attacker. By the time he got an opening to where he could grab the mask and put it on, filtering his air supply, he'd ingested too much of it. His reaction times got slower and slower and it reminded Dick of that time he almost drowned. The figure stopped fighting him, moving to purely defensive maneuvers and the edge of his vision became darker and darker.

With all the effort he had left Dick made a break for the window, managing to shatter it before being pulled back firmly by his shoulders. He struggled, trying to make it as hard as possible for his attackers and causing as much damage as he could before he was knocked out, but it didn't do anything.

* * *

Hello again! Insomnia is awful, but I got inspired for this one. As for where the story is going, well you'll have to just wait and see. I do hope you all like it though! As always, thanks for reading and for reviewing.


	18. Chapter 18

**XX:XX**

 **X, X**

 **Dick**

First thing he noticed was his mouth was dry and his head felt fuzzy. Like not a good fuzzy either like a fuzzy blanket that Bruce gave him when he finally confessed to having nightmares of watching his parents fall to their death over and over and over again. No, this was like an uncomfortable fuzzy, similar to the screeching of static on the old tv in one of the bedrooms or like when the dentist wanted to pull his wisdom teeth and he'd had to go around with cotton balls in his mouth. His wrist hurt really bad, most likely sprained and not happy at the pressure the bounds were putting on it. Everything else felt like just a bruise. That much was enough to be thankful for.

There was a creak in his neck, probably from sitting with his chin in his chest for so long and he tried to move. Great, arms bound, not together but on per each chair arm as well as his feet being separate. Great. Shifting around a bit more in his seat he discovered that while his mask was intact and his suit had not been tampered with, his pockets were emptied and his utility belt was missing. There went a ton of stuff to help him get out.

There was a groan next to him, and Dick noticed it came from Barbara. Farther down next to her was Tim, also out. Dick silently swore, he wasn't supposed to get involved with any of this. Bruce was going to ground him for, well forever. If they lived that long.

Dick had been taught first thing about waking up in strange unfamiliar places, check surroundings to find out if he could identify where he was. There wasn't much to tell him where he was, there was a conference table in front of him, but beyond that the room was empty besides for the other people and the chairs they sat on. Well that wasn't completely true, there was a camera in the corner of the room, positioned to have a clear view of the conference table and those who sat at it. There was only one door into the room, and the table stood between him and it. No doubt a last ditch attempt to slow him down should he somehow get out of his bounds.

"Hello?" Dick called out, getting no response. "What's up Doc?" He tried again. Bruce had often grumbled that Dick had the super power of annoyance. He could usually annoy whoever they were looking for out of hiding if they were known for arguing a lot. He'd done it with Scarecrow the most, the man couldn't bear it when Dick made chicken noises in an attempt to draw him into the open. The Joker was also super easy to lure out, Dick just had to tell bad knock-knock jokes or mess up the punch line.

"Hey!" He screamed, though it didn't do anything except make his head hurt. "If you're handing out super powers, can I have X-ray vision? That would be pretty cool. Oh, and the ability to fly AND breathe underwater. That would also be super cool. OH, and cooking skills. That would also be nice-"

"Shut. Up." Batgirl spit out, her head must hurt a lot worse than his. "You can't annoy them in here."

"You just don't believe." Dick admonished, trying hard to keep her spirits up. He'd been kidnapped before, though it had been by Ra's al Ghul. That kidnapping had sucked, in addition to fighting abilities everyone in middle management and above seemed incapable of shutting the hell up. Talia had also decided to take care of him, and that had been a whole other level of fucked up. He'd learned way more about Bruce then he had ever wanted to and a lot more about Talia's dream house then he'd ever wanted to.

"Your room service sucks ass!" he tried yelling again. "I'm going to give you a 1 star yelp review."

Barbara groaned, knowing he wouldn't shut up, while Tim seemed to be stirring nearby. Dick knew he would most likely be freaked out when he woke up, and Dick knew he had to keep him in good spirits. Bruce always let Dick go talk to victims while he went to beat the crap out of the perpetrators. Dick was usually able to keep them in good spirits, unlike Bruce who tended to scare them, again. Dick even made sure to stop by every now and then while people were recovering, just to say hi, especially the kids. He felt obligated to, and it helped him be able to get over a case, especially if it was bad, seeing the people who were victims getting better.

He was quiet for a while, his own head throbbing with the after-effects of whatever the hell they'd been hit with. Dick was nervous seeing as he had no concept of how long he'd been out and the only light in the room was a bright fluorescent that did nothing to help his throbbing head. It could have been days, it could have been an hour tops. Dick had no idea.

"Nightwing? Batgirl?" Tim asked, his voice small. He was awake and he'd clearly figured out just what the hell was going on.

"Hey there baby-bird." Dick said, trying to push out the confidence he didn't feel. "We're here." The nick-name was a two-fold. He didn't want their captors to know Tim's real name, if they didn't already and to show Tim he was looking out for him.

"I'm sorry. I saw them coming and tried to warn you but," he was quiet before adding a soft "they got me." Dick didn't need world-class detective skills to hear the tremor in Tim's voice or to know he was scared and probably going to cry, if he wasn't already. It was okay though, Dick kinda wanted to cry too. Bruce better hurry his ass up.

"That was really brave of you." Barbara spoke up before Dick could say anything so he just voiced his agreement. Instead of running away, Tim had tried to warn them they were in an ambush. Dick privately didn't know how much of a difference it would have made but it was the thought that counted after all right? Kid was obviously made of stronger stuff then Dick had previously given him credit for. Despite the fact Tim was small, he wasn't weak.

Dick silently swore again, trying to think of anything that would make Tim feel better. "You know Baby-bird, it takes a special person to do that. You'd make a super good Robin."

Tim seemed to perk up at that, trying to wipe his nose on his shoulder and turning to look over at Dick. "You really think so?" He still sounded scared, which was to be expected, but there a bit more strength behind him now. A resolve, and Dick knew exactly how Bruce had felt offering to him a partnership that night on the docks so long ago. Back then Dick had been lost and confused, while catching his parent's killer he'd lost direction. Bruce had given him one, a new thing to stand for and a new legacy to be besides helpless victim. Bruce had done the same thing; he'd stopped being a victim and decided to fight. Dick's comment had caused Tim to do the same, even if he didn't know it.

"Of course." Dick assured him. "After all, as the former Robin I should know what it takes." He smiled over at Tim who was paying him complete attention. Barbra, he couldn't read, though she seemed to be on the same page. "Once we get out of here, I'll teach you. Promise." Tim nodded, clearly feeling better and in a few ways Dick did too. They were going to get out of this, they were going to go back to the cave and Dick was going to teach Tim. There were no ifs, it was going to happen.

Tim started to respond but was cut off by the door opening. A man, in shocker Scrubs and googles stepped in, holding a laptop. Without a word the figure shut the door, took a seat and opened the laptop. It was only once the figure turned the laptop back towards the three of them that he spoke at all. It was the same voice Dick had heard Bruce going over in the cave, the slinky oily voice that reminded Dick of Voldemort from Harry Potter.

"Commissioner Gordon!" Dick blurted out, louder than needed just to drown out Barbra if she accidently called him Dad while he was upset. The figure across from him made no movement, only observing his reactions. The commissioner didn't look so hot, he had a cut to the forehead that Dick could see and was unconscious in whatever little room he was being held it.

"Where is he?" Barbra snarled, "Let him go!" She ordered only to receive a shake of the head.

"See, I don't give away things for free, especially specimens like James Gordon." Selina had been spot on about the crappy way these people talked about other people. Like rats in a cage or ants beneath his feet. Like they weren't people but were something else. The figure leaned forward and Dick unconsciously pulled back, not wanting to be near this guy unless he had too. "However, I could be convinced to make an exception. You'd need to do me a favor though."

Barbra narrowed her eyes, taking over the conversation. "What kind of favor?" The disgust and derision in her voice was clear. Dick didn't know how she or Bruce did it, they could make people feel bad with just a look. Well most people anyways, this guy seemed immune to the patented Bat-glare.

The man rose to his feet. "Oh, nothing much. You just need to get an old colleague of mine out of Arkham. You're familiar with Hugo Strange I take it?"

"Unfortunately." Barbra spat out. She hated Strange, saying he freaked her out. The fact they found a Batgirl costume when they raided his apartment the last time he was loose did nothing to make her feel better. Dick couldn't blame her, back in his early Robin days Strange had made some pointed accusations about the exact relationship Bruce and him shared. It made Dick sick to his stomach just remembering what Strange had alleged, and Strange had gotten the crap beat out of him, by Dick for his suggestions.

The guy, whoever the hell he was seemed to be immune to the irritation flooding his way. Or just didn't care. He pulled the laptop back and moved to walk out the door. "Excellent. This is going to be a mutually beneficial relationship." Dick clamped down on his tongue to avoid saying anything stupid. Mutually beneficial? Who the hell did this guy think he was and where did he get off? Threatening people with other people and acting like they had chosen to cooperate? No Bueno.

* * *

 **23:20**

 **Somewhere in Gotham City**

 **Selina**

They had been at this all night yesterday, all day and now what was going to be another all nightery. She didn't know how he did it, she was exhausted, tired and pretty willing to fall asleep on the first surface presented to her, floor or no floor. She'd had too many cups of coffee, tea and even those stupid energy drinks things and sill felt tired.

Their argument over what the hell to do about the case had quickly fizzled out when, upon arriving to the Gordon residence no one was in sight. The car was empty, passenger door open and the residence itself was wide open. Bad sign number one. There had been a few dings on the passenger side, obviously where some kind of fight had taken place because the car hadn't left the batcave with them. Once inside there was a clear struggle that took place in the living room, as well as a dropped blood analysis scanner. Inside the bedroom had been evidence of another fight, and they'd found one of Dick's fighting sticks he used rolled under the bed. All the signs Dick and Barbra had been here, and all the signs they hadn't gone out willingly.

The valuables in the house, money, jewelry electronics, all undisturbed. The only thing missing was the occupants.

The media had done little to calm the swell of rage in the city. Front page of the paper center spot read the headline "Police Commissioner and Daughter Missing. GCPD baffled." The news station ran the story pretty much every 15 minutes and it was doing nothing to help find any leads. The Police were baffled, not sure what to make of it, no ransom demands had been called in and no one had taken credit. Bullock, bless him, tried his best but he just didn't have the pull with reporters that Gordon did. The news media, even on a national level had their attention focused on the city of Gotham, and their police department. A department that had no leads and no way to explain what happened. Even the crminial underworld was buzzing, who would be so daring or so bold to attack the Gordons? The Joker denied it, Penguin said no one had taken out a hit or asked for weaponry, Black Mask said he'd like to shake whoever did it's hand. Carmine Falcone, Maroni and some of the other crime families denied all involvement, pointing out it wasn't in their best interest to have a police commissioner go missing.

Bruce, for his part, had been all over town like a bloodhound. He'd tracked down every single supplier of some kind of gas, that was at the residence, medical, and demanded an entire costumer manifest or he'd put them through the closest window. In broad daylight. News media had tried following him around but after he broke some reporter's camera they laid off. He went from place to place to place, finally until he went back to the cave to examine what they knew and try to piece together anything.

Alfred had tried to get him to eat only to be ignored. She had tried to help to only to be ignored as well. He was still mad at her, and wasn't interested in working together. Whatever goodwill they had managed to work toward, had been forgotten about as the case took full center. His mood had gotten even worse when they discovered Tim was missing as well. Alfred for his part had phoned in to each boy's respective schools that both boys were ill and would not be attending and continued to do whatever oddball thing Bruce asked him to do. He kept telling her to not take the silent treatment and snappiness personally, Bruce was just tired, overworked and afraid of what might happen to them. He was in crisis mode, and determined to do everything he could and more in order to find them.

Selina had done what she could all day to help, which mainly consisted of staying out of his way and working on her own leads. She'd called up some of her own contacts from the old days, and worked as many angles as possible in as few hours as possible. Still didn't get very far, though she did learn a government agency, Cadmus or whatever it was called, was watching the city very closely. Not sure how some secret shadow organization was going to help, but it was all she'd gotten that day. Bruce hadn't even made eye contact when she told him about it, despite the fact she thought it was important. He went right back to work on looking for locations around the city.

Which might explain why they back in the Batmboile, what a stupid name for a car. Bruce insisted he had a theory he wanted to test, try and draw out who he thought took them and that involved making a stop at Arkham. The Happiest Place on Earth. Not. The place gave her the creeps, and she'd never been locked up in there. No, back then she would have gone to Blackgate and then transferred out somewhere else. After all, she didn't have any reason to go to Arkham, though at that point in time Arkham had been easier to get out of. She always had planned to claim she had kleptomania.

The car ride had been pretty quiet, what with Bruce only responding to things she asked him with a headshake or a grunt. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, and he wasn't making any movement until the car radio crackled to life. "Escape attempt in process, Proceed with Lockdown. Be advised."

She almost didn't believe the car could go any faster but it did. "Bruce, tell me what we're looking for." She asked and got no response. Fine they were doing this the hard way then. She pulled a communicator off the dash and dialed for the cave. "Alfred, what are we looking for in Arkham?"

"According to the notes he left on the bulletin board, it appears we are looking into Hugo Strange and other associates." Whatever he was getting paid, it couldn't be enough because not only did Alfred play communicator between Bruce and the rest of the world, she was dragging him into it to. Maybe having a Butler was a necessary part of life after all. Note to self.

She was saved from any farther line of questioning when Batman randomly veered off the road, taking a side route barely used for prison transport to get right up and personal with one of Arkham's many buildings. The house was so gloomy, it was hard to believe that someone had lived here. Though when you took into account the rumor it had driven it's first doctor, Dr. Amadeus Arkham, mad, you could start to see why. The place looked straight out of some Gothic horror film, with big blocky walls, small windows with bars all over them, and security guard towers, it was enough to make anyone feel small and insignificant.

Batman, as usual, was charging head on towards the building, despite the fact sirens were blaring and lock down measures, ones she helped design even were being put in place. She didn't know how he still had this much energy, she felt like lead and the running did nothing to help her rib hurting. Damn, was she ever going to get back to normal?

"What's the plan?" She asked, panting to keep up as he scaled walls and moved through doors without answering. Finally after being ignored for a few minutes she pulled her whip out and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him back. The scowl she got was scary but Selina didn't care. "I'm not a mind reader. Gameplan. Now."

"We find Strange and shake him down for information. Then we go to wherever the re-incarnation of Indian Hill is." He said matter of fact, like she was an idiot or something and ran off again, having completely gotten out of the whip she'd used to grab his arm. They were going to have a very long discussion after this, after the little ones were safe of course, about appropriate and inappropriate ways to react to a crisis. Because if this was how he reacted every time there was a crisis, well, she could start to see why Alfred was so thrilled she was around.

She vaguely managed to recognize they were heading towards the high security cells. She'd visited before, but had never approached the cells from the direction he was going on. She trusted Bruce to know where he was going, after all, he spent a lot more time in here than she did. Now if it were, say Tiffany's or that cute jewelry boutique everyone was raving about, she'd be on point instead.

They came up to a group of guards, all of whom seemed relieved to see them. Never a good sign. The patrols had been a part of the new security plans, and had been put in place to make medical staff and patients feel more secure, especially from the more, violent, inmates. "Batman. We have everyone in lockdown. We can't find Strange. We ran into Nightwing and Batgirl earlier who said to try to the visiting center but he wasn't there. They said you were on their way."

Bruce for his part just nodded and went into high security anyways. She scampered behind, eager to get away from people. "You know this is a trap." She told him, to which he grunted, a grunt in affirmative as she had found out today. She understand the logic, he'd have to spring it, it was what he did. Still didn't make the possibly of getting the crap beat out of her any more appealing.

The wing was dark, only emergency level lights on in the building, and the glass cell walls made creepy reflections. Off to one side was Wesker, who plain just weirded her out. Then they passed the Joker's cell, one of the most reinforced of them all and also empty. That was another thing that made the place even creepier. Some of the people in the cells she didn't recognize, but she still felt better there was glass between her and them. You didn't get sent to the high security section of Arkham Asylum if you weren't considered incredibly violent.

All the way at the end of the long hall, was an open cell door. The glass was swung upon and an orderly, or a nurse was on the ground in front of it, presumably dead. She didn't want to think about who killed them, there was enough going on.

Batman got to the end of the cell block first, and sighed. Not even an upset sigh, more of disappointment. "Hello Ra's."

"Hello Detective. Having a good night are we?" Despite the darkness the man's eyes seemed to glow, like a cat's might in the dark. He seemed very different from how he had been the times she met him previously, then it was a suit that would have been fashionable maybe twenty years ago, slicked back hair and just a hint of the lunacy. Now it was out full force, full body armor, multiple swords on his back, another at his hip and the hair, black and gray streaked, now lose around his shoulders. She was starting to see now that maybe messing with him had not been such a good idea, not that she regretted it. "Oh, I see you brought your lady friend. Hello Kitty-cat." Ra's looked incredibly pleased with himself and it was starting to click into place for Selina.

"You were in on it all along weren't you?" Bruce demanded to know and Ra's laughed. It set her teeth on edge.

"My Dear Detective, you give me far too much credit." Ra's stood up out of his chair and slowly closed the distance between them. "I was contacted by a group that had money issues, asking for help and in return they would give me something I very much wanted. How could I refuse such an offer?" Ra's head tilted to the side as if seeing them for the first time. "There was a lot of work involved, but it's for the best. You'll understand someday."

The last line set Batman off, grabbing Ra's by the throat. "I don't care about that Ra's. Where are they?"

Ra's laughed again, though what was so funny Selina wasn't sure. She moved closer, just in case Ra's decided to start using the swords at his disposal. "Oh you mean the kiddos? I don't really know, they should be out of the building with Strange by now. Who's the new one? I rather like him." Bruce threw Ra's across the cellblock, and Ra's landed on his feet. "Come on now Detective, that's no way to treat me, we're practically family at this point."

Ra's tutted, sighed and nodded at something behind her. Whirling around, the orderly, the one she had assumed was dead was coming at her with some kind of sword. Fan-fucking-tastic. Bruce was too focused on Ra's to notice her efforts at not getting stabbed, again and charged at Ra's again. This wasn't Batman fighting, it was Bruce, full of rage and anger at being laughed at, at being taken advantage of and at someone else having the other members of his family. And to make it worse, Ra's wasn't fighting back. He was just avoiding him, side stepping the blows and not letting Bruce get to him, which only enraged him farther. And an enclosed space only made it less fun.

"Really Detective. I know you're better than this." Ra's intoned, calm and cool as if they were discussing dinner plans or what the weather was like. "Let me fix you. Let me turn you into the person you can be." Bruce growled and managed a blow on Ra's face, knocking the old man square in the jaw. The kind, happy demeanor disappeared, and Ra's transitioned from calm to furious. "Get them. Make it hurt." He ordered, barely managing to get a hand up in time to protect his face from Bruce's fist again.

The doors opened and the guards they had passed early raced in stun buttons ready. Of course now Selina realized they weren't asylum people, the entire thing had been a giant trap from the start, they were League. The League knew they would eventually find Strange's name and come to Arkham, and that was enough to lay the bait. And she and Batman had sprang the trap without a hitch. They were backed into a corner, things weren't looking good. Not that Mister. I-have-a-plan-for-everything cared, he was too busy trying to grab Ra's and pound his head in the ground. Batman really could be a big mama bear after all.

Not that it helped them much, Selina realized as a grenade landed at their feet, spewing gas. This was going to suck.

* * *

 **XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Dick**

Getting Strange had been surprisingly easy. When was this Asylum going to learn? The corridors had been abandoned, making Tim's first job as Robin, lookout, rather pointless. The patrols of guards, part of the new security imitative were nowhere to be found, and Strange's cell door came open with one keycard an orderly had dropped near the high security wing. It felt too easy, but Dick didn't care. He had two objectives, get Strange and then get the hell out. Barbara wasn't thrilled with him calling Tim Robin all the time now, but it still made Dick feel better to give him a job, and the last thing they needed was to have the media hear they were breaking Strange out of prison in exchange for the commissioner, a lookout had been essential. Doubly essentially considering even Batman would say hell no.

Babs had been upset the entire time. She was hyper focused, but on the inside she was struggling hard, to someone who knew her well it was clear as day. She'd rebuffed any attempts on his part to make her feel better, saying Batgirl didn't need hugs and she wasn't about to start now. On some levels Dick got it, when he'd been hunting down Zucco he'd told Bruce in more than one way to buzz off and let him work. Things got different when it was personal.

Strange had been quiet and offered them no resistance. He hadn't uttered a word the entire time, and when he'd been handed off to the doctor crew, who simply handed him a Doctor's coat and told him to pick up where things left off, it was eerie. Strange normally never shut up, about how smart he was, how much better than Batman was, how he knew who Batman was, stupid crap like that. It was almost like Strange wasn't happy to be on team Doctor, though Dick didn't have the time or the mental energy to figure out why.

The three of them had been shoved back in a room, though not tied up like last time. Small relief, considering his wrist was killing him, and he'd been trying his best to make some kind of wrap out of pieces of Bab's cape, which she tersely told him he would be paying her back for. Dick was no longer as willing to be as annoying as possible, he just wanted out. They'd attacked Arkham Asylum, things shouldn't be this quiet. Bruce should have come racing the second a sensor tripped, something should have happened by now. It wasn't right. It gave Dick a bad feeling, and the ball of nervousness he'd been trying to ignore only got larger.

"What do we do now Nightwing?" Tim asked, having not left Dick's side the entire time they were back in, wherever the hell they were. After grabbing Strange they had been forced in a transport van of some kind, no windows, and though Dick had tried to keep track of the turns, he was aware the truck driver was screwing with them. No one turns right three times unless you're making sure you can't be traced back. It was hard to know where they were, and even if Dick had a guess as to the where, he had no way to talk about the getting out of there.

"We wait." He said, trying to sound as confident as Batman did. How the hell did he make that crap seem so easy? 'Because I'm Batman' had been uttered too many times to count, and Dick had used to think it was stupid, though it had made him feel better. He wished Bruce was here, Bruce would be able to fix this, know what to do.

Babs hadn't given up her relentless pacing, and though that was how she dealt with stress, it still made Dick more nervous. Her Dad was all he had, a nasty divorce and being related to a psychopath had made it that way. Barbra's mom had packed up and left with her older brother one day, and it had been Barbra and her Dad ever since. It wasn't fair.

Nothing was fair.

The door, hinges on the outside, they had thought of everything, briefly opened and closed. The figure was back. Great, more diplomatic talks. Bruce had taught him you always let the other person feel like they were in charge of a room, and based off the two figures who backed up the doctor from hell, Dick didn't have a problem letting him to do that. Apparently they were afraid of them attacking and running, which was why they thought muscle was needed. Dick hadn't seen these two giant hulking henchman before, though it wasn't a surprise. They moved in and out of the city fast.

"Thank you for returning Professor Strange. He is an important member of the team."

"Whatever." Babs said dismissively, how the hell did she channel Bruce so well, especially when pissed? "About the commissioner?"

"He will be returned to the GCPD precinct in the morning. Unharmed. As per our agreement." Babs tried to hide it, but her shoulders sagged with relief. Dick's did too, though he hadn't realized he'd been holding them in so tightly. "Now-" The person began again, "about what we need you to do now-"

"You mean that wasn't it?" Dick interrupted, earning a scowl from the two body guards Dick had already named Tiny and Pinhead.

The Doctor, whoever he was, laughed. "Of course not. You've proven to be respectable specimens so we'll be keeping you around for farther testing, but no, you're not done. You may be useful yet" The man shook his head as if the idea was the most ludicrous he'd ever heard. "Get comfortable, we'll be by in the morning."

Dick moved to step closer to the door when both Pinhead and Tiny went for the waist, presumably to draw out a weapon. The figure they protected didn't care, his part in this stupid game was over. The door shut behind him, and a new wave of realizing just how fucked they were washed over him.

"Nightwing-" Tim asked, not sure anymore and looking very close to crying again. "Batman's coming?"

"Yeah Robin, of course he is." Dick managed to get out, and even though it was enough for Tim it wasn't enough for him, or for Barbra. She grabbed his arm and hung on, while Tim burrowed his head into his shoulder. Bruce wouldn't let them down, he was coming and he would get them and they would go home and watch that movie Dick wanted to see and Alfred would be there and make those cookies he liked and it would all be perfect and like nothing had ever happened. Right?

* * *

Hi! We're getting closer and closer, I hope you all are still enjoying the story! Also, thanks for the reviews and for reading! It makes me super happy!


	19. Chapter 19

**XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Selina**

Her head, as predicted hurt like hell. Whatever that stuff was, what was it Bruce had called it? Something with lots of ides in the name, was worth however much it seemed to be worth. Though, based on the batcave files she had gone through about Ra's, money didn't seem to be a problem. Apparently one of the things immortals did was accumulate money, and considering Ra's had been around for "lifetimes enough to see great empires rise and fall, for the works of great men to have fallen, and for long enough to see the humans destroy the beautiful planet of Earth and turn it into a constant battlefield with weak men now replacing the strong as warriors of the world and blah blah blah blah" she'd stopped listening as soon as she figured out he meant over five hundred. Apparently stockpiling gold and other precious resources was also a hobby of his. Ergo, he was worth a shit ton, not that any records could tell anyone that.

Still, as much as she hated the freak and wished Bruce would cut him off and tell him to go find his daughter on his own, a person whom Dick had described as "an evil assassin version of Harley Quinn if you made Harley Quinn twice as obsessed with Batman as the Joker" which told Selina all she probably needed to know, he was at least better than the Doctor and had simple motivations. Used to anyways.

Speaking of Batman, where was he? She lifted her head and pulled herself into a seated position, ignoring the extreme nausea that made her want to lay back down. The room was small, the slab that passed for a cot taking up one complete side of the wall, a door on the opposite side and nothing else in the room besides a lightbulb and a camera, placed on the ceiling, maybe twelve feet up, far out of her reach anyways. She would try and jump up to grab it and get their attention later, she didn't think she could move without making her headache worse.

Selina did a quick assessment of her surroundings and decided she ought to be pronounced as screwed. Maybe she could formulate a plan but as of right now, her gear was gone. The tools she kept in her pockets along her suit were gone, even the ones she kept hidden in more, discrete, places. Her whip was already gone as was the backup knife and other small explosive she kept in her boot sole. All she had were her fighting skills, and based on the fact her ribs still hurt, that was going to be a bit less than she needed.

So, what now? Selina did not damsel in distress. She would have to fight her way out, but obviously not out of this room. The door had no hinges, none on her side she could use for weapons anyways, and the cot she was on, was probably fairly heavy. She hadn't gotten up to try and pick it up yet, but based on the hard material she was sitting on and the fact her back hurt, it was probably nothing light.

She had no other weapons in the room, not even a blanket she could use as a way to try and strangle someone. Selina slowly lowered herself back into laying down, the change in height sending a brand new wave of nausea up. Her head still hurt like a bitch, and she knew she couldn't fight, not right now.

The door swung open, slamming itself on the wall and she could feel the sound reverberate around inside her skull. She thought she might truly throw up when she saw who her current company was. The all mighty humble and definitely modest Ra's al Ghul. He was accompanied by a giant man, and she did mean giant as in could play for NBA level giant.

"Did you show up to gloat?" She asked, bored sounding. If there was one thing Selina's adopted mom, the nuns, and her sister all told her, it was that she sometimes didn't know when to shut her mouth and used it to invite trouble. "Or is this the thanks I get for going out of my way to get you a few gifts?"

The neutral expression on Ra's face twisted, though whether it was more rage or irritation Selina wasn't sure. "That's not why I am here, I am here for a more grand purpose."

"You realized Bruce wasn't ever going to forgive you for this shit and you're asking me to put in a good word for you?" Selina wasn't sure why she enjoyed pushing his buttons so much. Maybe it was because he was so easy to annoy. The Joker would love this guy. Maybe when she got out of here she would try to set the clown on the man. It was the least she could do.

"You don't get to say his name harlot." A female voice screeched from the hallway, and in walked in one of the most beautiful women Selina had ever seen with a very ugly expression. She reminded Selina of this girl in highschool she knew, Allison had been her name, that no matter what always looked perfect. Sweat for hours in gymnastics with her, Allison looked perfect, running outside in the wind and the rain, Allison looked perfect. She looked just like the beautiful heroine from movies were no matter what awful thing happened to her, she looked gorgeous. It was infuriating. But while Allison had been one of the sweetest girls in her Catholic school, this chick looked like she was anything but sweet.

This had to be Talia, and it drove Selina nuts how pretty she was. Selina liked to think she wasn't insecure, and for the most part she wasn't. But this girl, perfect face, perfect hair, stupidly attractive features, looking like she was drawn to appeal to every man's fantasy, it made her blood boil. Why couldn't Bruce's stalker be ugly?

"Who the hell still talks like that?" Selina questioned, determined to get under this chick's skin. Based on the scrunching of the eyes and the lines appearing on Demon-child's forehead, it was going to be as easy as getting under Ra's al Ghul's skin. "It's the Twenty-first century, you might want to catch up."

The women took a deep breath and looked over at her father before answering. "I don't have to take orders from a thief." Talia smiled when she got his approving nod and Selina rolled her eyes, as much as the effort cost her. Dick had been right, her presence was annoying and grated like nails. Bruce must have been around only men for a long ass time when he met her. She couldn't see him being able to stand her

"I might be a thief but at least I'm not obsessed with someone who doesn't love me." Oh that did it. In seconds Selina was getting grabbed by the collar and giant man was trying to pull Talia off Selina. Ra's was yelling something in the background, Selina wasn't paying attention, she was too busy trying to make sure psycho didn't get any ideas like trying to claw her eyes out.

When it was over Princess looked less perfect, desperate to get her breathing under control, her shiny brown hair now loose in a few places, and her clothes messed up and a brand new black eye. She kept a surprising amount of weapons for someone who acted like a spoilt brat, and Selina hoped she was too focused on the comments about her being a psycho to notice Selina had palmed a knife off of her. Selina was not quite sure what she was going to do with it yet, that part of the plan hadn't been developed, which would upset Mr. I-have-a-plan-for-everything, but she wasn't sure where the hell he was.

"You just made a mistake." Talia hissed, and Selina kept looking bored. Girls like this just wanted a reaction, they thrived on attention and drama. The less of a reaction Selina gave her, the less she could feed, emotional vampire style. Noticing Selina wasn't rising to the bait, she tried again. "How does it feel to know we beat you?"

"You mean the masses of people and knock-out gas you hide behind?" Now Ra's was paying attention and she saw his brow furrow. "Wow, big shots. You have an army of mercenaries and weapons. Congratulations. No wonder the Joker is his greatest foe." She kept her tone as sarcastic and matter of fact as possible. In all honesty, she wasn't sure what their reason for coming in was, and the sooner she got to it, the better.

Ra's puffed up, like those stupid birds do with their feathers to show how big and strong they were "I am the great Ra's al Ghul, the Demon's head-"

"The strong and the awesome and the whatever whatever." Selina interrupted. Based on the giant guy's expression, apparently no one had ever interrupted him before. She decided to make a habit of it. "I already heard your spiel. I've already found Jesus and I'm not interested in whatever your selling."

Ra's had his teeth gritted. "Listen, women. You're only alive because the guy in charge of this project says so. But make no mistake, the second he no longer needs you, you will answer to me."

"Whenever your boss says so, I'll be shaking in my boots." Selina yawned, and they all looked a bit more incredulous at her nonchalance at being threatened by the almighty.

"We're equals." Ra's snapped, to which Selina raised her eyebrows. Ra's didn't seem to have anyone he really worked with. She'd approached the idea with Bruce but he had dismissed it. Something about Ra's not playing well with others. A partner who could stand this guy? What was he on and could she have some?

"Which is totally why you're doing all the leg work and talking to me. Sorry sweetheart, you've been demoted to middle management." The giant guy actually looked thoughtful for a moment, Talia seemed to be pretending she wasn't listening but Selina had Ra's full attention. "Let's think about it. Who has to pony up the people to take down B-Man? You do. Who has to go bother prisoners? You do. Are you even doing anything with Batman now that you have him? No, you're just the delivery boy. Even if you did help capture Nightwing and Batgirl, you fucked up by taking a kid too. Something only hired help who isn't good at their job would do. Face it. You're second fiddle. What do you get out of this? The doctor whacko is going to go do his experiment thing and you get to say you got his lab rats. So either you're in it for the money, or you're just here because you enjoy being told what to do."

Ra's looked insulted. "I saved them from bankruptcy. The only reason the good Doctor has gotten this far is because I funded his efforts. Without me he would be nothing." Ra's was trying to reassure himself, instead of her. He didn't want to admit he'd been had, which made rubbing the salt in the wound that much sweeter.

"So you're his piggy bank too? Why don't you start dressing in scrubs too that say 'Doctor's bitch' on them too while you're at it?"

"I am no man's bitch! I am the great Ra's al Ghul-"

"Yeah okay, you think that." Selina interrupted again. Ra's was really getting worked up, which was exactly what she wanted.

"Stupid women you don't understand!" Ra's hollered, complexly ignoring the other room's occupants. "When the Doctor is done, the Detective will be more than a man. He will be a God, and with him the Doctor and I will create a better world, with a new class of humans."

"So why isn't your daughter included? Why haven't you turned her into a new class of human yet?" Selina asked, genuinely curious. Talia actually looked curious too, and looked over at her father for the answer.

Ra's sputtered, clearly not expecting the question. "The serum, it is expensive. Hard to procure and hard to synthesize. It is where a lot of the money went, that and to pay the medical staff. My daughter will not have it until it is perfect."

"And yet me, a lowly thief" She made sure to make eye contact with Talia on that last bit, "Am kept around for experimentation with the same stuff? Yeah, something is off. Why don't you go ask your boss what's up?" She suggested, sickly sweet. Not that she needed to be, Ra's was already storming out the door, hand grasping Talia's bicep tightly, the giant man following them as quickly as he could and still making sure Selina didn't move.

Selina didn't try to get out, not yet at least. Her chat with the demons had left her with a worse headache than before.

* * *

 **XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Dick**

He wasn't quite sure how long he had been in this room with the rest of its occupants. He'd never been good at telling how long time had passed without the aid of a watch or something like the sun. Seeing as their room didn't have anything of the sort in it, it could have been hours or some small amount of time, like thirty-seven minutes or something small. Dick was hungry and had heard the rest of the team's stomachs' growl as well. Tim was curled up against him, and Babs was close by. She didn't like admitting she was upset, and Dick didn't want to push her. They'd have plenty of time to figure it out and what it meant for their baby relationship later.

Dick shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the drywall. His wrist still hurt and he wanted Alfred to be there with him to make it better. It was so stupid, he was a goddamn super hero and all he wanted was someone who had been a parental figure to him to come make it feel better. How pathetic was that? Despite his best efforts at being calm and reassuring, Dick had no idea what to do next or how to get out of here. How the hell did Bruce know everything and what to do all the time? Was this what he was thinking about when he stared off lost in thought and Dick had to say his name several times to get his attention? How to escape a mad scientist?

The door flew open with an ungraceful bang, bouncing off the wall, the doorknob leaving an impression in the paint and nearly shutting itself again. It got shoved back open and Ra's stood there, looking as mad as could be.

"Come along children." He said, sounding as imperial and calm as possible but his body language gave him away. Ra's had his hands balled into fists, kept reaching for the sword at his side and was antsy, almost as if he was unable to stay still.

Tim was startled awake and stared open mouthed at the new sight in front of him. Barbara eyed him with equal interest, but instead of surprise all she had was suspicion. "What are you playing at Ra's?" she asked, and Dick nodded along, trying to present a unified front. The last thing he wanted was Ra's deciding they were going to go play house with Talia again.

Ra's paused a moment, as if he didn't know how to answer the question. "We are going to teach the doctor a lesson. No one undermines the great and might Demon's Head, the greatest warrior to ever live, the mighty and generous gift to the people of Earth and it's sworn protector and he who will rain his wrath down on all who stand in his way. Including this Doctor betrayer." He took another breath in, and Dick couldn't really blame him. The spiel changed every time but the one constant factor it had every time Dick heard it was that it was a mouthful to say. "Now, you either stand with me or against me. Come with me on my path to redemption with the Detective and let us attack the Doctor."

Ra's wasn't thinking straight. His green eyes glittered and had just enough madness in them Dick was reminded uncomfortably of the Joker. "What do you mean by redemption?" Dick asked carefully. The difference between the Joker and Ra's wasn't that one of them was sane and the other was, or that one thought things through and the other didn't, it was that Ra's had more self-control and restraint, but he still lost that edge when he grew angry. Which he was.

Ra's stared at him haughtily. "The partnership between the Doctor and myself has come to a close. An end, a finishing. He has gone too far and hurt my relationship with the Detective past a point of no return. The only way to save the Detective is to go against my former ally." Dick had an un-easy feeling, but still didn't know what exactly to make of it. Looking over at Babs was no help either, all she did was shrug her shoulders and make it clear it was his choice.

Dick sighed. He only had so many options he could make. Trusting Ra's was never a good idea, but they had no other options. Well, staying in a room as a prisoner didn't count as an option. Besides, if Ra's was going up against this guy, it was probably because he thought he would win. The only man Ra's had lost to in a fight was the same man who taught Dick how to fight.

Dick stood tall and took a breath to steady himself. It was just like taking the leap off the platform and reaching out for the bar. He could make it, he had to. There were no other options.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Dick asked, looking back at Tim and Barbara to make sure they had his back. "Let's go get this creep."

Ra's laughed, an unnerving noise for sure. Ra's drew his sword and went down the hall, followed by several large men, men bigger than any Dick had ever seen, even when he was in the circus as a boy.

"What do we do?" Tim asked, and Dick wondered that himself.

"We follow along but let Ra's do the heavy lifting." He thought out loud. "The second we find out where B is or any other prisoners we go rescue them. Other than that, keep your eyes out for any exits or any way to disable systems in the area." He looked back at his two companions. "Sound good?" He asked. Dick had never really planned a field operation in the actual field. Bruce had let him help plan busts and other things, but out in the field, the biggest plan he'd come up with was how to take down a mugger. It must not have been half bad because both his partners were nodding along.

* * *

 **XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Selina**

The door opened again, much faster than she had anticipated someone coming back. Her hand fumbled with the knife a bit, which cost her the element of surprise. To her own shock she saw Hugo standing there, calm and collected as though this was a normal thing in Hugo's world. And who knew with how long he had been in and out of Arkham, maybe it was. Though he had always been a bit of an oddball.

Just because she ran into him at the Iceberg every now and then didn't make them friends. Rumor had it that Hugo was really weird up on the head, and even dressed up mannequins, dolls, to look like other people. People he knew liked dressing up as Batman. Either way he had always rubbed her as off. She had always assumed the old adage was true, Doctors who went into Psychiatry did it because there was something about themselves they wanted to fix, not just to help others. Considering all the shrinks she had met and those that had studied psychology, she could only assume the saying was true.

"Put the knife down Selina." Hugo instructed, pulling something out of his lab pocket and tossing it her way. Her gloves and belt landed on the stone slab that passed for a bed with a thump. Selina didn't put the knife down but snatched them back up. They had been hard to make, and even harder to get a person who would help her get the materials. After all, glove tips strong enough to scratch diamonds, pads to help her scale buildings, stuff that was very hard to find.

"Where's my whip?" She asked, anger creeping in. If those punks had decided to keep it for themselves. She'd yelled at Batman when she discovered he had an old whip of her's, one of her cat of nine tails, in a trophy case like it was some toy. It wasn't a toy, not like that stupid dinosaur he had.

Hugo raised his hands up in a peace like gesture before reaching into another pocket and pulling the whip out. It too wasn't some ordinary piece of material, it had to be strong enough to hold her weight and then some. Had to be able to have reach and be able to hit it's target effectively. It too was something she had spent a lot of time sourcing and making. It was very personal at this point, almost like an extension of herself.

"Now what?" she snapped, and Hugo looked back, quiet. Normally he didn't shut up.

It was a pause before he spoke. "Ra's has let out the others. He is going after the Doctor." Hugo stopped, looking at her thoughtfully. "But you knew that already didn't you?" Selina could only shrug. What Ra's did wasn't any concern. It was good to hear the kids were here though. That meant they were close, and that meant she could get them out. "You have to get them out. All of them."

"What do you mean all?" Selina asked. Not that she wasn't for rescuing others, she was. But all? That could mean anything.

"There's not many. Just one more besides who you are looking for. It would not be good for him to be left behind." Hugo instructed. "But then you have to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving Batman." Selina answered. Should she have called him Bruce? Hugo often bragged he knew who Batman was, and he had been correct. But wouldn't admitting to him he was right stroke his ego?

Hugo smiled, sad. "Leave that to me."

Selina's eyebrows shot up. "Why?" Her question was punctuated by a loud explosion, off in a different area of the compound. It seemed Ra's didn't waste any time. She must have gotten deeper under his skin than she thought. Dully noted.

"Let's just say this is my fault and leave it there." Hugo answered, pushing open the door farther to give her more of an exit. "Oh," He reached back in his pocket and handed her two more toolbelts, one yellow and another purple. "They might need these, so please give them back to them." He gestured towards the door again. "The complex is like a box. We're underground so you need to go up first." He added, trying to be helpful.

Selina walked out the door, waiting to see if there was someone going to lunge out of the shadows, and when there wasn't she went down a hallway on her right, towards the source of the noise.

"Oh Selina" Hugo called out, behind her. She briefly turned back, looking at the Doctor. He looked regretful, "Tell Batman, when you see him, I'm sorry. This is all my fault." She nodded and turned back again, picking up speed as she went. No time for not feeling good, she didn't know what the hell had just happened, but wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. After all, since when did Hugo Strange have anyone's back?

* * *

 **XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Bruce**

Consciousness came in threads, bit by bit. First was the barest of waking up mentally, just enough to know he was awake. Them came the pain drifting in, followed by pieces of the memory of how it had occurred. Beyond that, it extended into who had hurt him, and then it moved into the memory of the event. Arkham, looking for Dick, fighting with Selina.

At her name, Bruce realized just how much trouble he had been in, and tried to sit up, only to discover he couldn't. The restraints around his limbs ensured that he wasn't going anywhere. As more pieces floated back, he got more and more clear on just how bad his situation was. He silently went though his checklist. Step one don't panic, he had a plan. Step two, remember said plan. Step three, action.

Even though it was a commonly held belief that all of Batman's tools and tricks were in his tool belt, Bruce had quickly realized what a dumb idea that had been. He now kept them in various parts of his suit, which were unable to be x-rayed, a thing he had picked up from Clark. Some he kept in his arm sleeve and they could be deployed when he felt like it it. He just had to get out of a restraint and he was as good as gone. He was an escape artist for crying out loud, this should be easy.

The door opened before he could make his attempt, and he found himself staring down a pair of googles. Bruce had never been particularly scared of Doctors, his own father being a surgeon had helped dispel that fear. Even so, this was the stuff of nightmares, being strapped down to a gurney where a mad Doctor was going to inject you with whatever he thought was fun.

"Can I help you?" Bruce snapped, though his voice was still a bit raspy. The growl hadn't come out right and menacing he was not. Not that it mattered. He had to count on the doctor being unobservant enough to not watch him closely or to leave. Even if the doctor was observant, maybe the guard on camera duty was not. Especially Ra's people. They were people of action and found sitting dull.

"Of course you can." The voice was muffled by the mouth guard but familiar. Just out of reach of his memories. He knew it, he'd heard it before but couldn't quite reach out to where the memory was. "The two of us are going to help each other."

The hardest part about taking down some criminals was that they believed in themselves too much. Not in an overconfident way, but some fully believed they were the King of Gotham, Jesus, the greatest doctor who ever lived. A man with doubts could be talked down, a man with convictions was impossible to move. "Where are the others?" There was the growl. He'd never tell but he had spent a long time getting it perfect. Just the right amount of menacing but making sure he didn't sound like he had throat cancer.

"Around." The doctor picked up a syringe, filled with some green colored liquid. "But they aren't what's important right now." The man confidently walked over and despite his pulling and attempts to get free they were for naught. Bruce was very stuck in the restraints.

"Bruce you have to understand. This is all for you. To make you better. To make us better." The doctor tapped the syringe again, then started pushing the cowl aside to find a vein. "You'll understand eventually even if your mother didn't. Now stop squirming."

"You don't know anything about me." Bruce snarled. Good for Strange and his mout, knwoing to hit him where it hurt. This man, he had to be who he was looking for. Who took his parents. Who started everything. He had managed to get face to face with the man that had turned him into Batman, who'd ruined his life and ruined his family.

The needle bit into his vein and all he could do was glare. The doctor was unaffected by it, almost as if he was used to it. The gloved hand reached up and pulled all the googles off and pulling off the mouth guard, showing Batman his face.

And Batman found his father staring back.

"Trust me son. This is for your own good."

* * *

Hi from the author! It's been a long road to get to this point and thanks for sticking with me and thanks for reading. We aren't done yet, but I hope you liked the twist. Twist part A anyways.


	20. Chapter 20

**XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Bruce**

His brain was short circuiting. This didn't make sense, his father was his father, he'd dismissed that possibility a long time ago. They had been taken, against their will, and had been kidnapped. Not some kind of continuation of the black-ops Wayne program that got the company fined record numbers by the Federal government. It had been one of the first things he did publicly after their disappearance, condemn the actions, publicly fire all involved and vow to work with law enforcement agencies involved to ensure it never happened again. All at age eleven. This didn't make sense, this wasn't right, this wasn't the way things were supposed to be. This was a 'and they lived happily ever after' story, not a 'and then tragedy struck' kind of story.

"You never were kidnapped, were you?" Bruce demanded. Where to even start with questions, 'how could you do this to me,' on the top of the list.

The man, his father, sighed. "Now isn't a good time to explain. We're going to have to get out of here soon. Your lovely lady friend pushed Ra's a bit too far." Bruce blinked and his vision swam slightly. Was it supposed to do that? He'd been drugged before, having taken all kinds of things to know how he reacted and to be able to fight on them. He'd even gotten used to Joker laughing gas, fear toxin and a lot of Ivy's creations. This felt different, almost as if he was being warmed from the inside out in an uncomfortable way.

"Nevermind that!" his father announced cheerily. "We can always do the final stage somewhere else. This is just a precursor, a prep medication if you will." He finally walked out of Bruce's view and began to mess with something on the desk, returning with a small harddrive. He expertly pressed a button on the suit and slid it into the compartment he normally put evidence in. "Here's how I did it so you know better next time and can protect your sidekicks."

"They aren't sidekicks." Bruce started defensively, knowing how much the two both detested the word. Selina would skin him alive if he ever tried to tell her what to do. "You didn't answer my question."

His father wheeled around, eyes sparkling, the ones from the portraits and paintings he had looked at for years, hoping he would live up to the high ethical standards they set. Bruce hadn't killed because of his parent's dedication to saving lives and making them better, and now the universe gave him this in return for all he did. It spat it back in his face. That was laughable now, was that what the Joker meant when he said the world was a joke? He'd never killed, citing his parents, his father, would be disappointed in his actions. It was a cruel irony. "It's for you. We're making a better human, I've been telling you all along." He stopped, seeming to think and then his expressions softened. "The drugs mess with your mind son. It's alright."

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"Of course not." He tutted, almost as if Bruce was a young boy and got caught trying to open Alfred's cookie jar. "But you could be better. If Superman showed up and decided to kill you, what would you do?"

"Stab him with the Kryptonite I carry around."

"Okay besides that. What if you didn't get it in time? He'd crush you. The Flash, you'd lose because you could never catch him. That green Martian guy, He'd read your every move. Aquaman would drown you and be done with you or use his army and kill you. Point is, you're just a human, there's no way to win it all. Unless you let me fix you.

"You see, Indian Hill, the Feds were closing in and we had to get out. But we were nowhere near close. So we went into hiding, and scraped by doing what we could. It was hard, and we had to let the heat die. Poor Hugo took the fall, I heard you've been kind of rough on him, but we made breakthroughs beyond belief. We made so many medial advancements, it will take years to be able to filter them all out through legal channels."

"So you let me think you were dead to finish your pet project that's against everything you stand for as a doctor." His tone was a lot less bitter than it sounded in his head, and even though his body was slowly going numb, he wanted to flail around, to hurt something. It had been his way of dealing with any emotion he couldn't control up to this point, and it was denied to him. He had to stay and be a pet project. His father's.

"Bruce, you ended up remarkably well. Beyond anything I could have ever hoped for. You're strong, and a fighter. I'm so proud of you. You've reached the end of your human potential, I've dedicated my life to expanding it" His voice was thick with emotions, and Bruce hated himself for even feeling some since of peace at the fact his father thought he turned out alright. His father was a megalomaniac who treated lives like they were nothing, who had left him behind without a thought to pursue his project.

"You still left me." He choked out, not even caring anymore he showed how upset he was. "You both did."

"Your mother didn't cooperate with this either." He said absentmindedly, sounding like he was packing up something beyond Bruce's point of view. "That's why I made a new one."

What the hell did that even mean? Bruce pulled and pulled at his restraints but his body wasn't responding anymore. He couldn't get anything to move, and even talking had started to be a struggle. Thomas Wayne smiled at him, sadly as if he knew exactly what was going on in his head. "Don't worry son. I'm going to fix this, I'm going to make you into something more powerful than the world has ever seen. You'll forgive me for this one day." He gently swept his hands over the cowl until he couldn't see anymore, and Bruce could vaguely feel a cloth being put over his lens.

The bed was wheeled out of the room, the lip in the door being the only movement his body could feel, and even then just barely. It had transitioned from a numb to an ache, by the time he managed to realize they were in an elevator, going up. Note to self, compound was probably underground, check all former Wayne facilities, especially those pretending to be waste dumps and otherwise.

He heard a flurry of movement around him again, and silently swore, even though Alfred would be disappointed in him. He couldn't get out of this without some help, and all help was apparently stuck below or somewhere far away. For the first time in a long time he was afraid, not that he would ever admit that. Actually afraid of the future and what it might hold. He hadn't been this way since Dick had gotten hurt a year ago, and he'd sat at the boy's bedside.

It was clear to him his father was delusional, that much was certain. But had he been this way forever, so convinced of his own genius that he thought he was the one to carve humanity into his own vision? Had Bruce just missed it when he was growing up, having lost his parents at a time when children think their parents are invincible? Had Alfred noticed, the man closest to the Wayne family out of anyone? There had to have been signs, something that he was deeply disturbed. But there hadn't been any, he volunteered as a trauma surgeon, and with dawning horror, Bruce wondered how many times he had decided to play God on the patients. The Indian Hill report said they had been getting their patients from nearby the area in Gotham General, people no one would usually miss. How many had been handpicked by his father for what they had been doing? No one would have ever been believed if someone accused Dr. Thomas Wayne, savior of the hospital and brilliant surgeon, of running an illegal human experimentation ring.

The rustle of the wind and chirps of the many bugs told him he was outside. He heard a man in the distance giving instructions, but Bruce couldn't pay attention. It was like his brain wasn't going to cooperate with him, preferring to go numb. He'd get feeling back; his feet were beginning to feel like they were molten and he certainly felt that. The gurney, bed whatever the hell he was in jostled and then was wheeled up an incline into a truck, the light seeping through the cloth covering the lens.

Something heavy landed on his shoulder and it took longer than it should have for his brain to register it was a hand. Somehow the fatherly touch, meant to be of comfort, made this even worse. His father was a monster, like the ones he had fought. He was also the man who had taught him how to ride a bike, who had helped him after every nightmare, taken him camping in the woods around their home, let him stay up past his bedtime and gave him cookies without Alfred knowing. It made him want to throw up.

The truck, van whatever it was began to move and then there were two hands, steadying the bed he was strapped too. Pulling away from his family, the ones who actually weren't psycopaths and leaving them behind.

If he could move his neck, he could hit the comms button in his suit and get communication lines open. This was something he would have to fix after this, provided everyone made it out. That was the only option, it had to be.

* * *

 **XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Selina**

A box. Okay, she could get out of this. She had pulled worse jobs in places whose floorplans had surprises in them before. She had made it out then and she could make it out now. She'd stopped to throw up once, emptying the contents of her stomach. The nausea was still there but with nothing to throw up, she hoped it would be enough to keep her going. There would be no death defying tricks or stunts, a better sense of balance would be needed for that, but she felt reasonably confident she could take someone in a fight.

Not that she had any options to not take someone. Another explosion sounded somewhere above, and she was running out of time. If they were underground and Hugo could be trusted, oh was that a shitty thought, she had to get up. Getting buried in rubble did not sound attractive. Nor did getting dug out by Gotham Emergency services five days later, provided she hadn't died by then.

She didn't even look around the corner which was to her detriment when the shot rang out. It managed to miss her, though that probably had something to do with the shooter. He'd stopped and lowered the weapon, some kind of gun, when she rounded the corner. Evidently, he was running away from the labcoats just as much as she was.

Upon getting closer she realized he had to be the other one Hugo was talking about. Even if he wore a baggy gray tee-shirt, jeans and some sneakers instead of a labcoat, the babyface gave it away. He couldn't have been older than sixteen, and it showed. Despite the game face, and the gun, he was young. She'd seen it enough in her own neighborhood, a kid who had seen too much trying to look like the world didn't faze them. "Hey," she started not sure how to continue her conversation. "I'm Catwoman."

He stared at her so she continued. "I'm getting the hell out of here and suggest you do the same. I'm looking for some other costumes, you see them?" He nodded. That was a relief, and another point in Hugo's favor.

"Yeah, two levels up. They were with Ra's." The derision in his voice made her think she had an ally in disliking the man. Bruce hated the man's guts, but acknowledged he'd learned a lot from Ra's. The only people who seemed to like Ra's were the people who worked for him, the ones he seemed to have brainwashed that he was the equivalent of Jesus Christ come again, everyone else did not like him at all. Add in his dear daughter, Talia, a major pain in the ass, the Ra's team was a big fat no from everyone around. No wonder he was unheard of in Gotham, Bruce tried his hardest to make sure he didn't mingle among the Rogues. Least he start a massacre, of himself.

"So you've met Senior Asshole." She answered. He smiled. It reminded her of Bruce, the smile that told her he was about to make some kind of move to stop her or he was about to do something that would be dangerous but fun, like diving off Wayne Tower.

"Yeah, dude's a total freakshow. He makes me shoot for him but doesn't want to acknowledge I'm real the rest of the time, something about being not being a true acolyte." It was accompanied with an eyeroll, as though it shouldn't matter but to the boy it did. Selina knew all about that.

Then what he said really clicked in her head. The sniper. She was looking at him. And no one in their dreams would have believed he was a teenaged kid, who was stuck in this game just as much as the rest of the unwilling participants he shot at. Part of her still felt suspicious, but she felt he was right. It fit Ra's too well, if the kid got caught he was disposable and no one could trace it back to him. The Doctors probably took him, for God knows why. And if she was wrong, well, no time to be wrong now.

As if reading her mind he noted quickly. "I shot the copies. Not the real ones. The Real ones got worked over and shipped out." That would be an avenue for questions later but now was not the time. Wheeling around the corner she encountered a staircase and silently thanked her past self for taking the time to run upstairs as exercise. It was coming in handy now,

He followed her up the stairs, as though it didn't bother him to run up a flight at all. "Once we get out, I know where the vehicles are. We can escape in those." He said simply, as though they were a team now. And in a way, Selina thought, they were. He raced ahead of her once on the floor above. "Come on, I know where they are going. We can loop around and find the others along the way." She nodded along, plan as good as any.

"Hey," She called behind him, keeping pace with the kid in front of her, who still held the gun and looked like he had no problem using it. "You never told me your name."

"It's Jason!" He called over his shoulder, racing around the corner ahead of her and out of sight again. "Jason Todd!"

* * *

 **02:30**

 **Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City**

 **Alfred**

"I'm telling you Mam'," Alfred said for the fifth time in the span of as many minutes. "They are not here. They went out of the country for a bit and are not to be disturbed. The Senior Master Wayne went into the city for a few nights to clear his head. "

The woman in front of them, Amanda Waller, reiterated for the fifth time she knew that was bullshit and that she wanted to know where Wayne was. All the Waynes. Alfred watched her very carefully, she reminded him of the bobcat that appeared on manor grounds sometimes, she looked pretty harmless and like he could take her in a fight but under, there was that coiled up rage and innate sense of danger. Having read her rap sheet, Alfred knew pissing her off would be to his own detriment. That and she had two very tough looking guys behind her and out front.

She took a deep breath and seemed to slowly count backwards from ten. Alfred idly wondered what she had done or thrown to cause her superiors make her take anger management classes, people like Amanda Waller did not voluntarily choose to take them, and waited. When she got to the end she opened her eyes, straightened up and looked him in the eye despite her being a good six inches shorter. "Let's try this again, shall we Mr. Pennyworth?" Alfred made no acknowledge, curious to see where she was going with this. "I know about your basement and Bruce Wayne and the rest of the gang's nightlife. I know Nightwing and Batgirl disappeared trying to find the commissioner, I know Batman and Catwoman disappeared trying to find them after Hugo Strange was broken out of Arkham." Alfred made no movement to indicate she was correct, though he was surprised at how frank she was about it. Must be an American thing. "But what you don't know is who took them or what he wants, so for the last time, we need a way to get in touch with them." Alfred raised his eyebrows and her composure went out the window "Now, or I'll make sure you live the rest of your life in a cell at a black-ops supermax site." The words weren't yelled, rather they were growled out, but either way Alfred knew she was losing her patience.

Alfred inwardly rolled his eyes. Americans. "You could have just said that the first time" he pointed out to the woman, who still looked to be plotting his doom. His expression turned serious. "I haven't heard from them, and their equipment isn't pinging in, which indicates it's not working or it's far underground. Farther than Sewer level underground I might add."

"Try it again." She ordered him. People had this problem, after learning he was the butler in assuming that Alfred would do as he was told. Alfred detested the notion. But, no sense in pushing her farther, and he pulled out the small device that appeared to be a phone but was actually a nexus of Batman's operation. Bruce and Lucius Fox had dreamt it up one night at some dinner they were both forced to go to, and it had added to Alfred's peace of mind immensely. It contained access to the satellites that tracked everything Batman tracked, and that included himself.

"It appears Batman has resurfaced. He's moving on 15th and appears to be heading towards the Washington Bridge, heading out of town. Which is unusual." Batman would never run away from a fight so he must be perusing, Alfred reasoned.

"He's moving them." Waller barked, and grabbed her phone, and started mashing buttons and cursing when she hit the wrong thing. Alfred felt even worse for the person who took her call, as she was not civil about how many trucks and well-armed personnel she wanted, she wanted all the bridges out of the city shut down, and she wanted several helicopters to search the surrounding areas. And she wanted right bloody then.

"Do we need to be concerned with Mrs. Wayne?" Alfred inquired as soon as she angrily pushed the end call button on her phone. "If she is in danger perhaps we should take her with us." Alfred was firm but clear he was not about to let Waller run around and do whatever she wanted. This was his family, Alfred's primary concern was the safety of the members and added members of the Wayne family. If the rest of them were in danger, maybe they ought to bring along Mrs. Wayne.

Waller looked at him a moment and Alfred was well aware she was sizing him up. He must have passed whatever metric because her next words were "First of all, I don't care what you did for her highness, this is America and you play by my rules." Alfred bristled, the nerve of this woman. Although, it was nice to know his contributions weren't forgotten though. "Two, I'll have people take care of her. Three, you wear a vest and when I say jump you ask how high, no negotiations, got that?" She was challenging him, but Alfred was not about to get in a pissing match. Not when things were so high stake, and they indeed seemed to be.

"If that's what it takes." He acquiesced, he'd fix his pride later. Alfred took the vest as though it was a total normal thing for him to be doing, though in his previous line of work it had been. He turned and opened a panel in the nearby wall. For someone who disliked guns so much, Bruce sure had a lot in hidey holes, arguing Alfred needed to defend himself should the manor ever be breached. It came in handy, as Alfred selected his favorite handgun along with the ammo to go with it. "Let's get going."

To their credit none of the muscle bound individuals she had rolled up the manor with blinked at his presence among them, though Alfred knew they weren't paid to ask questions.

"Are there any Wayne Enterprise buildings in the nearby vicinity?" Waller asked, nicer this time as they jumped in the back of a black suburban. The car started rolling out the second the door shut, but well before anyone was buckled in.

"There's a warehouse, a waste disposal site and something that's marked as mixed use residential." Alfred replied dutifully, offering her a look at the map in his hands. Bruce was moving steadily along, too fast to be running but too slow to be high speed.

The phone made a slight beep and two more icons appeared online, marking Batgirl and Robin. Bruce still had Dick as Robin in his system, having yet to update this portion of his mainframe. He'd put in trackers in their belts, arguing he needed to recover their equipment if something happened to it. That hadn't been the real reason, but the one the two teenagers had accepted.

"There. Nightwing and Batgirl just emerged at the Warehouse." Alfred calmly informed Waller, who started barking orders into another phone in her hands, as well as a radio that communicated with the other cars.

Alfred kept his eyes on Bruce's dot the entire time, moving steadily away from the site and towards the city outskirts. What the bloody hell was he doing?

* * *

 **XX:XX**

 **X,X**

 **Dick**

They had finally made it outside after a great deal of stairs and hallways that happened to be full of angry looking demon agents. They had finally found a sign that explained the proper safety procedures for evacuation and followed the signs to the exit. Thank God for OSHA, even at an evil liar safety was no joke. Not many lairs had the attention to safety this building did and Dick was pretty thankful, especially with all the explosives going off.

Tim was panting hard, but every time Dick had tried to check on him or looked over at him he pushed himself just that bit farther. Barbara, who was crazy and liked running didn't have as much of a problem with it, though she was appropriately winded. Dick? Dick felt a new-found appreciation for his grappling gun that allowed him to scale distances with relatively little effort.

They had just made it to the cool night air and melted into the shadows to regroup when they heard more bangs. Dick groaned out loud. They had just run all the way up, managed to get away from demon agents and lab coats alike and now there were people with guns. Fan-fucking-tastic. Tim looked like he didn't have it in him to go a couple more yards, let along be able to out-run fully grown henchmen.

"Stay. Here." Dick pushed out, trying to get his own breathing out under control. Barbra must have been more winded than he thought because she didn't even bother to argue with him about what to do. Tim nodded in thanks, leaning heavily against the building while his hand clutched his side.

Dick moved closer, hiding in the shadows to see what was going on. There were plenty of hiding places, multiple trucks littered the area, some of them delivery trucks, others were transport vans. A few seemed to be from people who parked there because they needed a parking lot and didn't care it was private property.

He arrived just in time to see Selina exit the building along with someone else, who was not shy about firing back at whoever was shooting at the pair. A wave of relief rolled over him when he saw she had their belts, Bruce had always lectured him that he should be able to do what he needed to without his tools, and that he could not become reliant on them, but that did not change the fact his job was a ton times easier with the tools the belt provided.

The doors remained closed behind them and the pair raced across the parking lot just as he had. Dick longed for a way to get her attention, his comm was not built in like Barbra or Bruce's were and had been taken from him.

He briefly stepped out of the shadows for a moment and made a loud of noise to get their attention. Yelling for the two was a stupid endeavor, and would only attract more attention. Selina picked up there was a person there after his second odd noise and said something Dick wasn't able to hear. The two made their way over and met up with him.

"Nightwing, Jason. Jason Nightwing." She explained hurriedly, and Dick nodded in respect. How old was he and where had Selina found him?

"Is B coming?" He asked her and her expression sank.

"I thought he was with you." Dick shook his head. "Shit." She swore, adding a few other choice words Dick couldn't hear. He took his utility belt from her, looking inside to see if he could track Bruce.

After making it back to their hiding place, Dick silently handed Barbra's belt back. "Can you get B on the comms at all?" He asked and Barbra's own expression sank as she realized that Catwoman had not brought him with her.

He pulled up a small device and poured over it, noticing Bruce had already left the location. "He's headed down 15th street towards the bridge." He looked around again, Selina taking her own time to take her breath, the new comer trying to appear as nonchalant as someone could in such a situation and Tim, who was still breathing hard but looked better. Barbra was still calling over the comm.

"Let's get a car and follow" Dick offered, and receiving nods all around continued. "If we don't instantly see one we can borrow, we'll have to go by street level. Batgirl, can you call the GCPD and get them out here?" Everyone else split to give the cars a once over while Barbra began to place the call.

They were interrupted by the sound of tires squealing, a Gotham Police Department Swat vehicle coming to a stop in front of them.

"That was fast." Tim remarked, looking excited at the sight of police. He'd certainly had enough of costumed vigilantism to last him a while. Which meant he'd probably be angling to get back into the batcave after maybe two days.

"Too fast." The stranger remarked, and Dick was inclined to agree with him. Something didn't sit right.

Catwoman elected to be the one to check out the car, something Dick was thankful for. It was when she began to backpedal that Dick got uneasy. He'd soon have his confirmation the van wasn't what they needed it to be when a voice rang out. "Hey there Pussy-cat! Need a lift?"

Babs got a lot more hurried with the emergency dispatcher, whereas Tim melted even farther into the shadows. The new guy put on a brave face, but the entire group knew their company wasn't friendly.

Harley Quinn stepped out the darkness, coming from the passengers side, sizing up the group and squealed. "Hiya Catty! We're off to catch a Bat, You guys look like you'd love to come along!"

Selina tried negotiating but it was useless with Harley when her Mistah-J was around. Harley alone could be reasoned with, even seemed to have moments of lucidity where there was no obsession. But the second the Joker entered, she was back to being his number two, and that included following orders to a T, even at her own detriment. Harley had her shiny pistol out, the one Batman had taken from her last time they had run into each other.

The back doors opened and multiple Joker goons emerged, begging the question of what had happened to the actual SWAT officers. Dick didn't think he wanted to know right now, not with that many barrels pointed at him.

"Come on now Harley," Selina cajoled, seemingly unfazed by the sheer firepower pointed at her. "We're all friends here. We've had a rough night already so let's say we just call this whole thing a bust and get together some other night. Does that sound nice?" Harley didn't blink, not even looking back at her beloved Mistah-J for approval.

"Well, it is a nice night for Bat-hunting." Harley replied sweetly before screeching. "NOW GET IN THE CAR." She waved her gun around before firing straight up in the air. The henchmen in clown masks pointed their guns at them again, and Dick got a sinking feeling in his gut.

"We are going in that direction." Selina noted, a lot weaker this time, while Dick could see she was also seething. She had gone out on limbs for Harley many many times and this was the thanks her so called friend gave her.

"Excellent!" The Joker cackled, looking very happy at the thought. "Now hurry, we've got to move before the they get there first! It's all over the radio don't you know?" He said, though with the tone he took he could have been discussing dinner plans or how cute cat videos were. "Now get in the car." Was said a lot more menacingly, and Dick didn't really know what else to do besides obey.

At the very least there was no room for all the Joker goons, and some were left behind. That didn't mean the large automatic rifle wasn't pointed in his general direction anymore. Dick had grabbed Tim, who was doing an excellent job of making himself as small as he could. Selina for her part was glaring down the Joker goon, though it didn't do a bit of difference.

The radio apparently went to the back of the vehicle. "Subject moving Westbound on 15th towards Washington Bridge. Be advised of a hostage situation. Subject is considered Armed and incredibly dangerous-"

* * *

I know, it's been a while, but I had life get in the way. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the update and are still enjoying the story.


	21. Chapter 21

**Selina**

If she got out of this alive she would sleep for probably a solid 24 hours. She had spent an entire day searching for the kids, got kidnapped and knocked out, and despite being knocked out she still felt dead on her feet. And now she was in the back of a SWAT vehicle with a murdering psycho in the driver's seat and her so-called friend giving him directions. She would say it couldn't get worse but didn't want to jinx it. Because things could always get worse, no matter how bad they seemed.

The calls from dispatch were the only source of noise in the back seat. The two henchmen with their incredibly silly clown masks stared them down. The mayor had asked all local business to stop selling scary Halloween type clown masks, and the city complied after discovering continuing to sell them made the store a Joker target. Teens stopped trying to scare people with them after being yanked off the streets and thrown in lock-up for hours. The only kind of clown mask left were the ones that were ridiculously cutesy ones the Joker refused to use normally, or masks that had been retrofitted for the purpose. Online retailers sold them, but by that point it was very clear the only people who would dare wear such a mask were under the clown himself.

Tim said curled up against Nightwing, doing an excellent job of making himself out of sight. The kid was clearly exhausted and way out of his element, though to be fair they all were. The only thing keeping him going was the sheer terror of the Joker. Nightwing was staring straight ahead, not even looking and Selina assumed he was doing whatever Bruce did when he was tired but still needed to be alert. Barbra too, for that matter, was off by herself, taking in very slow breaths and focusing on the grey metal wall in front of her.

The sniper, Jason, was sulking. The goons had taken his gun away after realizing he was armed, though Selina privately suspected they hadn't taken all his weapons. He'd be the best to help her take out the henchmen, the problem was getting his attention to do it. Both henchmen were hyper-focused on the crew, and Selina knew any wrong move would result in gun-fire. Even if the goons somehow missed the close range shot, the space was small enough that bullet's ricocheting around and hurting someone was a huge possibility. She was in no position to take them both out, it would be a team job. The other issue was she didn't know Jason's capabilities. Sure he seemed pretty in shape, but that, as she had discovered early on in life, did not make you a fighter.

The vehicle suddenly lurched to a stop, throwing both goons directly on top of them. Selina wasted no time delivering a hit to the back of goon one's head, and noticed Jason was on the other one just as quickly. Poor guys face would probably never be the same considering how hard he got it bashed in the metal seat. Selina didn't feel bad about it though. Considering how her night had been going she was more than willing to share the bad luck and take her lucky break and not jinx it.

She wasted no time snatching up the gun, while her new friend Jason had grabbed the other. Nightwing and Batgirl finally snapped out of it, moving around in an attempt to help tie up the henchmen. Nightwing came up with some rope from his own utility belt and passed it around to the group. The moans from the goons on the floor didn't make her feel bad, and she didn't feel bad about securing their hands so they couldn't attack once the shock of the pain wore off.

"What's going on outside?" Tim wondered aloud, and Selina noticed for the first time the yelling that was going on outside.

The doors were yanked open with a jolt and she instantly readied to fire, ready to play a game of chicken with the clown himself. Instead of a whack job in a purple suit, she instead got some very unhappy government suits with rifles, who weren't shy at screaming at her to drop her weapon and put her hands where they could see them.

The guns that had been in their rag-tag team's possession for all of a minute and a half were dropped and everyone's hands went up. They got yanked out of the car and told to sit on the curb and be quiet. Normal Selina would argue, complain and make some quip about how they weren't the boss of her. However, with the amount of large black SUVs in the area and another truck farther up the street told her it wasn't a good idea.

The Joker and Harley were whining into the asphalt about how they had just wanted to join the party before some suit kicked them and told them to shut the hell up. These people had to be government, no one else would have the balls to kick the Joker in the leg, even if they had him in fully body restraints on the ground. No one really wanted to deal with that death sentence.

"Alfred?" Nightwing questioned, gesturing in the distance off at the old man, who was holding a very large rifle of his own. How he had gotten Bruce to be okay with that Selina didn't know. Then again, Alfred seemed to have his own Bat-powers.

Waller was next to Alfred, looking grim as usual. Though Selina didn't ever think she'd seen the woman look like she hadn't smelled something unpleasant. "Come out now. You have nowhere to go" she barked at the van ahead, clearly in charge despite the only one unarmed in the little circle.

Cute. Charming. That was the problem with government people. A FBI team had been assigned to her case, though they quickly stopped sending people because they all decided to start with her fence. Who admittedly wasn't a nice person. Things worked differently in Gotham, locals knew that but Federal Bureaucrats didn't. The Feds didn't like listening to that fact either, based on the lack of Gotham police squad cars in the area.

The van engine revved, though what they hoped to accomplish she wasn't sure. They had nowhere to go. All it did was antagonize Waller, who started yelling again.

The door to the back flung open, though there wasn't much to see considering how dark it was.

"You're going to need to let me go." The voice, calm and cool yet chilling. And incredibly familiar. "He needs the next piece. He'll die without it."

"You're not going anywhere." Waller insisted, as booming and as angry as before.

"You'd kill my son?" The voice hissed, and then it all fell into place. The sudden re-apperance, the random sudden interest with Batman and the city. The reappearance of the Wayne's wasn't a lucky fluke, it wasn't a miracle or a gift. It was all because of this. Bruce was going to be crushed. Was his mom in on it too? The same woman who had doted on them all day, gone out of her way to be welcoming and caring. The woman who had fixed her dress for her because she was close with her son, who'd accepted Dick without any hesitation.

Then those thoughts fall away, though explosions tended to derail anyone's train of thought. Ignoring Mr. Macho government man, she ran the exact opposite way you were supposed to, right at the van.

* * *

 **Dick**

Most people tended to react poorly to explosions. People thought they would react like they did at explosions in movies or on TV. The reality was most people expected to have an explosion, and if they hadn't seen the foreshadowing, they only jumped slightly. It lead to the false idea that when they eventually ran into a real-life explosion, they would be fine, okay with it even. They didn't realize the deafening noise is made, the ringing in your ears, the smell of singing and burning, and if you were really unlucky, the screams. Even if a person wasn't frozen in shock, they tended to run away.

Not Dick though. After shoving Tim into Barbara he raced straight into the area, which he realized was a cover set up. The black smoke obscured his vision, made his lungs cry in pain at what he was doing to them, and his tired body protested every move he made. It didn't matter. He had a job to do.

All around him he could hear scuffling, the shadowy figures around him Dick didn't know if they were his friend or not. Gunfire was going off everywhere, sounding like faint pings and deafening the area even more. It was hopeless to try and hide behind something; there was no way of telling where it was coming from. All that he could do was go forward.

 _Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right._ It was one foot in front of the other. Such a simple movement. That was how he got himself to move. Logically he knew it was only in seconds that it took him to cover the ground but it felt much longer.

Too long. As both he, a few government agents, Waller and Alfred discovered upon reaching the van was that it was empty. A gurney in the back that had previously been used to hold a large sized person, a few medical bags, though they were empty, and a hatch in the roof.

Waller was yelling something but Dick could only catch every other word. His hearing was coming back in spurts. Alfred was hanging onto him, looking him over, noticing his arm and making concerned looks. Selina arrived shortly after, her costume torn in several places, deep scratches running up and down the sides and in her shoulder. She honestly looked like hell, and kept trying to tell him something, though she wasn't able to override Alfred's mother hen-ing.

Dick gestured to his ears, causing Selina to appear to sigh. She tried to mouth something at him, though it took several times for Dick to get it.

Al ghul. Of course. How could it be anyone else?

"He set off the bomb, the get-away apparatus, everything." Selina spoke, talking louder than her normal volume. Obviously her hearing wasn't back to normal either. "That bitch attacked me in the smoke."

'That bitch' required no explanation. Dick was very familiar with Talia, she'd kidnapped him once. That was, an experience, to say the least.

* * *

The atmosphere at the regroup in Wayne manor was heavy. Everyone was still covered in smoke, or smelled like it at least. Alfred was hanging onto his weapon, trying one handed to mother hen everyone. The man, no boy, that had arrived with Selina was hanging onto his own rifle, while simultaneously staring at everything in the house with wonder and trying not to get caught staring. Tim was fast asleep on the armchair, curled up he looked even smaller than he normally did. Barbara insisted on staying and sometime in the past hour or so Police commissioner Gordon had made an entrance, though when and how he had shown up again Dick didn't remember. Either way the Commissioner argued that he knew everything and wanted to see his child right then and there or he would arrest them all. Everyone had been too tired to argue with him and let him in, at first he'd been too angry to speak correctly but that transitioned to talking with Barbara in the corner of the room, quietly. He'd have to ask her about that later. Alfred had quickly explained Martha Wayne had been moved to a secure facility and his withering look told Dick to not ask any more questions.

Things were very bad. Alfred was openly carrying guns around and not enforcing the "no costumes outside the cave" rule and Amanda Waller was standing by the fire place, piecing together what had happened for Selina, the stranger, Alfred and himself.

"Many many years ago, there was an open investigation into Wayne enterprises of noncompliance with lab testing safety standards. Routine stuff but something didn't add up right. The account numbers didn't match up either, and there was a larger investigation launched. We didn't know what we were dealing with going into it. That investigation over the course of years spiraled into everything from third world country human rights violations in procurement of testing materials to actual human test subjects.

"The FBI was very close to moving in when the Waynes died, or they disappeared. It delayed the investigation a year and by that point Bruce was technically the owner and ready and willing to cooperate. Most of the major players went to prison, some went to countries we don't have extradition treaties with, some few made deals and turned over their research to the government in exchange for supervised research with a new department, CADMUS.

We saw a resurgence in some of the same materials being trafficked in the past few years in the Appalachia area, along with a spike in missing persons cases in the area. We never could quite get there in time though, always one step ahead. When the Wayne's reappeared we obviously re-opened the investigation but we had no proof he had anything to do with it." She rubbed her eyes with her hands, clearly exhausted. "The sniper attacks made us speed up our timeline but we still didn't know how everything fit together until tonight happened."

"So you knew about this and sat on it?" The boy, Jason hissed. "You let people die and get hurt because years ago you decided to wait?!" It was hard to not see his point. Hell Dick even agreed with him, it sounded more like Cadmus had waited a while and then shown up after the messy parts to reap the benefits.

"No one sat on anything." Waller snapped. "We had to have an airtight case or we'd never get the project killed."

"Some job you did of that." Was the retort. Waller sighed out loud.

"Look, we're the government. Our job is to protect people. We couldn't just let some of those people go, if we didn't use them someone else out there would. It was deemed necessary for the greater good."

"But people died." Jason argued. "People suffered." One hand was balled into a fist, the other wrapped around the butt of the gun, and he looked ready to pounce, though whether it was to shoot Waller or beat her to a pulp with it Dick wasn't sure.

It was Selina who cut off Waller this time. "Yes they did. But right now, playing the blame game won't do us any good. We need to go find where they went so they can pay for what they did." She had been in the corner all this time, just watching. Her arms were covered in bandages and she looked like hell. "Okay Jason?" Selina had crossed over and gently pulled his fingers off the gun, and just as gently wrapped him up into a hug. "We're going to get them okay? With or without Waller." Waller clearly wanted to say something but obviously thought better of it once Jason's head relaxed into Selina's shoulder. Dick would crack a joke if it wasn't such a stoic moment, he had to be seven or so inches taller than her and Selina was not a short woman.

"If Ra's and Mr. Wayne are working together they would be using Ra's facilities." Alfred spoke for the first time in a while, addressing the room as a whole. "They wouldn't try to use any Wayne Enterprises facilities, they'd know we have an advantage there. Besides, it sounded like they need access to certain materials, already pre-made. Given every current Wayne Enterprises building on the Eastern seaboard has been inspected in the past year, that means they are either using a former building like they had been previously or are using something else altogether." Alfred paused thoughtfully "The escape vehicle was aerial, meaning it had to have been tracked by some kind of sensor that's been placed in the city. We find out where it came from and where it went we have a direction to go."

"Not anymore." Selina piped up. "Ra's is on warpath and not in a good mood. The second he gets done with Wayne Senior he's going to kill him." Selina almost looked excited at the prospect and Dick made a mental note to have everyone talk about what happened so nothing got left out.

Alfred nodded along. "So it will be Ra's facilities then. Bruce keeps very good track of them as well as all accounts, alias and what few known associates he has. Ra's would go somewhere he feels safe, most likely the Himalayas. It's hard to get to and from what Bruce tells me, incredibly well defended as well as his favorite residence. We should start looking there."

Dick sighed in relief and made a mental note to thank Alfred later. The last thing he wanted was to be in charge of this thing. Being in charge was the last thing he ever wanted to do, and the more Bruce being gone, the more he felt the crushing weight. Barbra and Tim already looked to him for what to do, and he didn't think he could handle it if something happened to them on his watch. That and Bruce would kill him for it. As far as Dick was concerned Alfred and Selina were in charge.

"To the Batcave?" he offered cheerily as he could sound, which wasn't much. Selina smiled, disengaging from the hug and pulled Jason along with her into the hallway. He heard he mention something about body armor, which he guessed meant that Jason as coming. Tim had perked up and stood by Dick's side, silently waiting for permission to get to come, or at least watch. Dick pulled him into a hug and told him to go down with the two of them, he could rest in there. Besides, he'd probably feel safer in the save than he would at his own home.

In the corner Barbra and her dad where having a whisper argument before Gordon finally sighed and stood up. "We will be watching from the cave, but we're going to help." Barbra jumped up with energy no one in the room knew how she still had and pulled her father off towards the hallway, babbling with enthusiasm about the computer technology or something nerdy that Barbra was into. Gordon still looked like he wanted to yell at someone but wasn't about to turn down a trip to the place every Gothamite had wondered about.

Alfred had crossed the room and stood at Dick's side, and stared down Waller, who for her part was doing her best to look offended. "You better not be thinking of locking me out of this-" she began to threaten.

"Or what? You'll have us all thrown in federal prison without a trial?" Alfred was still holding the gun and while it was very loose in his hands, he still had the power in the room. "We are not a group of terrorists Miss. That doesn't fly." For as much as people thought Batman was scary, they had clearly never dealt with a pissed off Alfred. Te stare, the tone and the posture had to have come from somewhere, and it had come from the most meek looking member of the house.

"Either you let me in or I handle it my way."

"Because your way worked so well last time." Alfred remarked blithely. Waller had the decency to look offended before Alfred sighed. "If you have input we would welcome it, but you are not doing this your way. It's our turn to take this down." Alfred stared at her pointedly. "Like a team."

Waller didn't say anything, just stomped past them. Dick guessed they had their answer when she sheepishly walked back a few seconds later and asked how to get to the cave.

* * *

I know, it's been a long time. I've had a lot of sad real life events happen, so that's where I have been. If you're still here for thanks for reading along.


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